I have seen many outstanding dentists in my life, so take my comments for what they are worth. Six years ago, I went to Dr. Stolworthy to clean my teeth when I was living in Seattle. During the cleaning, he said that I had seven cavaties, and that I needed to replace my existing filings immediately that day or else my teeth would suffer. Dr. Stolworthy cleaned my teeth, and then proceeded to drill all of the so-called cavaties and fillings in a 2 day period with my mouth held open for 8 hours.
When the novacaine finally wore off on the third day, I was in excruciating pain. I then discovered that Dr. Stolworthy had dislocated my jaw 20 degrees and given me TMJ. I felt like a truck had run into my face, and I could not open my mouth enough to get a spoon into it, and I had to live off of liquid foods for 9 months. I was in constant pain, had horrible headaches, was non-functioning at work, and began taking painkillers just to keep from being awake and aware of how much pain I was in. The pain was overwhelming and for about 1 1/2 years I thought death would be a good relief.
When I repeatedly complained to Dr. Stolworthy about the results of his work, he had the audacity not to care at all about how much damage he had done, and to send me a bill (in excess of his prior charges to me) for over $100.
In an attempt to cure the pain and rectify the damage Dr. Stolworthy caused, I went to other doctors and dentists, all of whom advised me that there is no 'cure' for a dislocated jaw or TMJ, or for the tooth damage Dr. Stolworthy did to me.
I also later discovered that in fact I didn't have seven cavaties, or need to have my fillings replaced at all. Dr. Stolworthy was just overbilling my insurance company and performing unnecessary procedures in order to bilk my plan. Ironically, Dr. Stolworthy's fillings were not even done correctly, as he failed to lay a 'base' down in the teeth before putting in the fillings. The reason you need a 'base' is to avoid having heat and cold sensations transfer through the teeth. So I had to pay another dentist to re-do all of the fillings Dr. Stolworthy had done, and lay down a proper base in the teeth. This took another year, because my mouth was so messed up from the pain and nerve damage that he could only do one tooth per month. What a nightmare.
To this day, six years later, I am still suffering from the consequences of Dr. Stolworthy's shoddy work and dislocation of my jaw. I had to have another dentist repeatedly adjust my messed up bite (by filing down my teeth) because of my jaw dislocation, and my visits to TMJ specialists around the country haven't removed the TMJ problems. My jaw still clicks, and I still have serious nerve damage in four of the teeth which Dr. Stolworthy worked on — SIX years later.
My advice: go to any other dentist on the planet (preferably outside of the State of Washington) but stay away from Dr. Stolworthy. Based on my experience with him, he has no conscience and should be put out of business for having commited malpractice.
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