Dental Work

When I was 16, I got a job working as an office assistant at the new dentist my grandmother went to. At first, it seemed like a great first job. The dentist was young, handsome and seemingly nice and the other ladies that I worked with were great. After about a month or so, things started to go wrong. The dentist would continuously screw up relatively routine procedures (for instance, he would perforate the sinus on every surgical tooth extraction he did) and often did more extensive work than was necessary so the patient would have to pay more. Then his weird mood swings kicked in. He would get into huge screaming fights with his wife on the phone, then mess up a procedure because he was mad. Finally, the office manager quit and since he couldn’t find anyone else to take her place, I got to work 50 hours a week (for six dollars an hour!), processing insurance, being a receptionist, cleaning and actually assisting on procedures. I screwed up the billing the first time I had to do it and accidentally sent out bills to people with insurance pending. This brought a wave of people into the office, many with receipts stating that they had paid in cash and upon investigation, I found out that he had been taking the cash payment out of the computer system and creating phony insurance info.

The final straw came when he made me (remember, I was 16 and untrained) assist on a surgical extraction, holding the thing to suck the blood out of the wound. I quit then and there. His increasingly apparent coke habit, the porn that he had delivered to the office, his rages and the unethical and illegal things he did to peoples’ mouths was just too much. He (surprise) couldn’t find a replacement, so I came back for the last few weeks of the summer for 10 dollars an hour (a lot for a 16 year old) and spent the remaining time running an audit trail to send to the insurance companies. I recently found out he’s still in business, though I can’t imagine why. We did report him to OSHA, the Health Department, the insurance companies, and the IRS (he wasn’t paying our taxes that he took from our paychecks), but apparently they decided he was still okay to operate on people.

Comments (16)

Frau BlucherApril 2nd, 2010 at 10:15 am

i hope you reported this guy! he’s a menace!

tronnerApril 2nd, 2010 at 10:24 am

Wow, probably the most objectively “worst” job I’ve seen here. Glad you got out and sounds like you saved ppl money, too.

AndrewApril 2nd, 2010 at 1:18 pm

You’re a hero, OP!

Dental GirlApril 2nd, 2010 at 4:29 pm

*sigh* Dental Assisting in general, is always a very worst job ever. Dentist are crazy and treat their staff like s**t. I’ve been doing it for 10 years, so I would know, glad you got out when you were 16.

BriApril 2nd, 2010 at 9:17 pm

I’m glad you stuck it out long enough to run an audit trail. I’m really suprised this guy has not lost his license, or at least been sued multiple times. And I agree with GirlApril, dentists are crazy, though usually this just results in suicidality.

Call 911April 2nd, 2010 at 10:22 pm

What the hell is suicidality?

KApril 4th, 2010 at 9:08 am

you can’t report him to the dental association(I forget the name) and have his license revoked?

bexApril 4th, 2010 at 5:18 pm

tried. they just called him and asked some questions and were apparently satisfied with his answers. The problem is, most people don’t know what should or should not happen after a dental surgery. They thought the complications were normal.

DotApril 5th, 2010 at 6:55 pm

That’s terrifying. Thank you for trying to get his license taken away. I’m now terrified to have dental work done.

BriApril 6th, 2010 at 6:59 pm

I was referring to the statistics that dentists have VERY high suicide rate. So apparently staring at people’smouths all day is not good for the mind.

Ouch!April 7th, 2010 at 6:19 pm

I think the perforated sinuses make this possibly the worst story on the site. And the frustration you must have felt when you reported him but nothing was done to stop him!

This makes me appreciate my fantastic dentist even more.

buffyApril 24th, 2010 at 2:48 pm

Sounds like that horrible B movie, “The Dentist” with Corbin Benson.

AceMay 27th, 2010 at 10:02 pm

That’s one hardcore dentist… didn’t he know that coke is bad for your teeth, though? :D

TinaAugust 2nd, 2010 at 3:23 pm

This is terrifying. This is why it’s so important to research your dentist first, to see what people are saying!

RyugiSeptember 30th, 2010 at 11:20 pm

OMG I THINK THAT WAS MY DENTIST. >.<;

ErinOctober 8th, 2010 at 11:48 am

Dental Girl– Dental Assistants do not always have the worst job ever. I am a dental assistant at a pediatric dentist and the dentist I work for is more than wonderful. I really enjoy my job and know a lot of other dental assistants that do too!

OP– this is horrible. I have heard way to many horror stories about awful dentists!!

Leave a comment

Your comment