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Posted: 26-02-2003 22:17 Post subject: Scared of the dentist? You will be!

Taken from *THE SUN newspaper dated Wednesday, February 26, 2003, page 19.

'DENTIST' HURT KIDS

A BOGUS dentist pulled out children's teeth WITHOUT anaesthetic.
They were left screaming in agony at a clinic set up by Luis Penate.
He had proper euipment, wore a white coat, displayed fake qualification certificates - and ripped off medical insurers for £40'000 in fees.
Penate, 28, was rumbled when scores of parents became worried about his rough treatment of kids.
One ten-year-old had two teath pulled without any examination or pain-killing injections.
Another child had four teeth filled in an hour long ordeal after his parents were sent outside.
Penate faces fraud charges in Los Angeles and could spen up to 30 years in prison.
A lawyer said: "Little children were hurt. Many kids kids are now so terrified of dentists I doubt they'll ever go to one again."

I read that after my mum had told me she watched a horror film last night: 'The Dentist II' Eek Eek

*Not having been found in a litter tray or on a train but brought by ME. Wink

Posted: 27-02-2003 12:53 Post subject: Re: Scared of the dentist? You will be!

Posted: 27-02-2003 13:07 Post subject:

I once went to a dentist, when I was about 17, who asked me 'private or National Health'
I answered 'National Health ' and he injected my gum whilst I was standing in the waiting room. He then told me to sit in the chair and immediately began pulling the tooth
The anaestetic actually kicked in when I was on the bus on the way home - bleeding profusely

Posted: 27-02-2003 13:31 Post subject:

Having broken a tooth on the notorious "snack" of Pork Scratchings, i manged to struggle on for a few months without too much pain. Eventually, i had to visit the dentist to get something done about the blasted thing as it had become unbearably painful.

He examined me and informed me that if i make an appointment he would drill the tooth and then rebuild it at a cost of about £200 (this is on the NHS). Trying to make an appointment, i was told i would have to wait 3 months for the surgery.

The next week, i was in so much pain, i was forced to go to the Dental Hospital in Glasgow for an emergency appointment. The Dentist there took one look at the tooth, told me it was badly infected, and had been so for about 2 months! I was whisked away for urgent treatment where i was told that had my own dentist tried to drill the tooth, it would have shattered as there was no pulp left inside! One extremely painful extraction later (it came out in 3 bits) i was on my way home. All in the period of about 1 hour. And it was free!!

Needless to say, I no longer visit my old dentist.

Posted: 27-02-2003 13:45 Post subject:

As a child of about eight, I was told by the dentist that I needed a
tooth out and that she was going to have to put me to sleep. I had
heard this phrase used in connection with a pussy cat and thought
I knew what she really meant so I started hollering for my Mother,
who was in the waiting-room. Instead of giving in to this wimpish
demand, Miss Heathcote called for reinforcements in the shape of two other
dentists, who literally strapped me into the chair and held me still,
drowning my sobs with the gas-mask.

So far as I know, she was a fully qualified practitioner but her decision
to extract the tooth was a big mistake in itself and led to years of
further extractions and corrective work.

My brother also told me a dreadful story about a colleague who had
weekly appointments with his dentist for a period of about ten years.
It turned out to be the dentist's own work-creation scheme to compensate
for his falling patient list. Everyone else had noticed he was going mad and
voted with their feet - or should that be teeth? This young man ended up
with a face full of unnecessary metal-work and bills for several thousand
pounds but it never occurred to him to question the dentist's good faith. Eek Eek

Posted: 27-02-2003 14:45 Post subject:

oh i could tell u some stories about my "School Dentist".... but theo one i feelstarted my phobia is sitting in the chair chattering away as 7 yr olds do and haveing a gas mask clapped over my face with me flailing about helpless... and wakeing up minus four teeth. ..... they actuly offered me ice cream afterwards!... i was just in shock for weeks after and havent trusted dentists ever since.

Posted: 02-03-2003 22:20 Post subject:

Posted: 02-03-2003 22:35 Post subject:

Posted: 02-03-2003 22:43 Post subject:

My two kids have visited the dentist since they were toddlers and are unphased by checkups or any treatment they have to have.

Our dentist has some bubblegum flavoured local anaesthetic he rubs onto the gum before giving an injection. I've always been honest with them, telling them that sometimes you can feel the injections and you can feel what's going on, but it doesn't really hurt and they've accepted that.

Carole

Posted: 02-03-2003 22:43 Post subject:

Posted: 02-03-2003 23:11 Post subject:

Posted: 05-03-2003 09:35 Post subject:

Posted: 07-03-2007 21:47 Post subject:

About time this thread was resurrected!

Posted: 08-03-2007 11:55 Post subject:

Oooh, dentist horror stories! I have a couple of tales, one happened to me and one to my sister.

I had a dead tooth, which was a sort of grey colour - I think I fell over as a kid and knocked it or something. I believed it was going to just have something stuck on the front to make it look ok. They started up with the whirring whining tools (I thought it was like sanding a surface before painting it, to make sure it sticks). After a while, they stopped for a minute, and I closed my mouth, only to discover a great gap where my tooth had been until they completely drilled it out. They stuck a false one in, but it was a bit of a surprise to discover the original had completely gone!

Worse was what happened to my sister. In her early/mid teens, she needed to have braces, and various things done to arrange her teeth properly, as some were too close together. She went to the dentist, who was supposed to remove (I think) 4 teeth, to make space in her gob for adult ones to end up in the right places. In the end, he removed 7 teeth, including several healthy ones which were in the correct places (and I think left some of those which were meant to be extracted). So she ended up with huge gaps, and had to have braces for far longer than originally intended. She's now in her mid-twenties, and only finished having orthodontic treatment a year or two ago because of the cock-up.

Posted: 08-03-2007 12:28 Post subject:

Urgh...dentists...
Some can be terrible but fortunately mine is quite good. I loathe the noise of the drill though..*shivers*
I've had root canal surgery before due to a filling falling out and me not noticing and it's incredibly unbearably painful...not least because I'm very resistant to the anaesthetics dentists use. I ended up getting about 15 injections before eventually just telling him to get on with it. I had injections in the gum (various places) , the side of the tongue, the cheek, INSIDE the tooth (repeatedly for each root) and while all the flesh was numb I could still feel the drill going into the roots. "Does it hurt?" "NGGARGH"
It's only been matched in pain to the time I inadvertantly caught a flaming roman candle firework ball in my hand. (cue crispy skin and nasty burns)