I'll try & keep this is as brief as possible, but I completely sympathize with the other former patient of Dr. Rempala's that filed a report. I, too, have filed lengthy reports with the dental board, etc. When I read this other report I felt obligated to add this:
My main problems took place in the fall of 2005. Dr. Rempala was on some kind of 'extended leave' from the office & his associate, Dr. Seth Gladson started taking on the patients. Dr. Gladson suggested I go ahead & get a crown on a tooth that needed a filling replaced, but would inevitably need a crown at some point.
The first temporary was extremely painful. Finally after a week or 2 of pain & even taking Darvocet, it was removed & replaced. This new temp crown was fine for the remaining week or so until I got the permanent one.instead of putting this permanent crown on with non-permanent fixative, he put it on with the permanent kind & the pain started right away & intensified for a couple weeks, I got up to 10 Vicodin a day. He seemed adamant that the crown was fine, & that I just needed a root canal. Taking the crown off didn't seem to be an option, I'm assuming because cutting it off would inevitably destroy the crown. At that time he just sent me for a root canal & wouldn't listen to my concern about the fit & that I thought the crown needed to come off.
This is when I found a new dentist to get a second opinion. This dentist did more x-rays & adjusted my bite, but the pain would eventually come back. 3 other teeth also started to show signs of distress & the pain was a constant. Finally after 2 months of pain &
16 Vicodin a day in the end, I went to see an endodontist, who did a root canal on the tooth.
For the next 3 days the pain just got worse & even Vicodin would not help. The endodontist said the problem was the crown & it was then cut off a day or so before the New Year. (And I had to cancel a planned vacation & lost all the cost of this, too!) The main pain was then gone in about 6 hours. But the soreness & residual effects lasted almost a year. The tooth was left without a crown for maybe 3 months to allow it to settle.
A few weeks later, pain started again. I made another trip to the endodontist, who determined my teeth were stable. I ended up at an oral surgeon & then a neurologist after a trip to the emergency room in extreme pain where my blood pressure went through the roof. The neurologist said all my pain was dental caused by the crown... Either some kind of nerve damage or infection possibly. Finally pain subsided enough & the tooth was reseated & crowned... Note: quite a bit of drilling had to be done to reseat it.
My total cost has been well over $11,000... The tooth next to it also had to have a root canal & the crown removed & replaced shortly after due to the stress of the first tooth issue. I had only had that crown a year... One Dr. Rempala had done for me that I hadn't had problems with prior. I missed a month of work... Not to mention all the drugs & their side effects. I also had to stop Invisalign for a long period of time, which caused more problems. All of this should have waited til after my invisalign treatments were done to begin with.
The only resolution they offered was for me to come back to have THEM fix the problem... Which is something I couldn't risk doing. They said I could come back & see Dr. Rempala, but obviously due to the nature of the emergencies, I couldn't wait many months. And all of this was a result of just replacing an older filling! No one from that office ever called to see if I was ok... And after all those prescriptions for painkillers!
I called many times & the staff receptionists just became more & more rude to me. I was delirious with all the drugs & pain & just wanted help... I've never been in that kind of pain or ever had a medical emergency like that. I finally gave up calling & they never bothered to see how I was doing. I had been a lyal patient there for 5 years. They wouldn't even refund the cost of the one crown!
The residual pain from all this finally subsided in January... A very long time... I'm just relieved it finally did end. I just don't want anyone to go through what I did... & I'm sorry someone else has apparently.
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