Showing posts with label Small Smiles Complaints. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Small Smiles Complaints. Show all posts

Monday, January 26, 2009

Complaints Still Coming In: Little To No Improvement Since Steven Adair Joins FORBA/Small Smiles

What exactly is Dr. Steven Adair doing to stop the abusive and poor quality dental care at FORBA/Small Smiles clinics?

A few months ago FORBA announced he was Chief Dental Officer. However I've been told that he's really just a part time advisor and sends out emails now and then. I don't really know exactly what he's supposed to be doing, but so far I'm not seeing much. Maybe he needs to send his emails to me as well.

Rochester, NY, Massachusetts and Cincinnati, Ohio came in over the weekend. Actually all on Sunday. Three emails from three different states and clinics and they all sound pretty much the same. It's hard to deny the fact that this abuse is widespread, isn't it?

Below are three emails I received over the weekend. Actually I got all three of these on Sunday. Just when I thought things might have gotten a bit better I find the same complaints just keep coming in.

Of course my advice to these people were to file complaint with Federal and State authorizes as well as dental boards.

I would also like to offer this:

1. Get copies of ALL of the patient chart including x-rays and make sure the parents compare the original chart to the copied records to make sure they get them all. Our office mgr is famous for only copying the pages she wanted copied which just made me furious.

2. Get those records to another dentist for a 2nd opinion or even to the medicaid office or whatever insurance they have.

3. Check with the insurance carrier or medicaid to see what was actually billed and make sure it all adds up. If it doesn't add up file a complaint with your state Attorney General and Board of Insurance as well as the agency who oversees your medicaid program.

My name is M***** C*********** and I am the grandfather of a three year old girl (A******* *******) that has had a traumatic incident with the Small Smiles clinic here in Rochester NY. A********* had in our opinion been traumatized at the dentist. She was restrained, intimidated and tortured to the point her capillaries in her eyes broke! This so called dentist insisted on capping her baby teeth to reduce further damage to her teeth!!! Her baby teeth!

This procedure resulted with my granddaughter’s gums becoming enflamed and swollen. When my step daughter (Sarah Minor) returned her to little smiles for an emergency visit she described the resident dentist as “jamming” an inspection mirror into her mouth in an attempt to PRY it open! When she freaked he exclaimed “he was bitten earlier in the day and didn’t want it to happen again”. After a short visual exam (not even five minutes) she stated “he did not see anything and for her to brush more”!

That night the pain became so unbearable for her that she was rushed to the emergency department at Rochester General. It was here that the ER dentist told Sarah she had a bad infection and required immediate surgery before it turned into a health issue!! To date she has had one such surgery and is scheduled for another due to the depth of the infection around the capped teeth!

When I did an Internet search to see if this company had any other complaints I could not believe what I read. Everything that was written by other parents – word for word- was what happened to A********. This is how I was directed to your office and am filing an official complaint!

I am going to try and contact the other parents as well as legal counsel to see the extent of our rights but someone from your end has got to do something also .All these new parents are trying to do the best they can and are being taken advantage of.

There needs to be tighter laws and regulations regarding medical practitioners dealing with children. If they think they can tie up our children and torture them with no consequences they have another thing coming!

Sincerely,

M******** L. C*******

For S******* M******** mother of A******* *********

________________________________________

Hello,
I don't know exactly where to begin...but myself and a friend are looking into the Small Smiles practices in MA, after both of our sons had questionable experiences. Her son was put in a papoose restraint for a non-emergency visit. We are serious about doing something, but are looking for advice as to where to begin. Any thoughts?
Rachel

_________________________________________

i read somewhere to contact you about small smiles. I am a former employee of the clinic in Cincinnati, Ohio and for the rest of my life i will be ashamed of the things i was made to do. i attended a dental assisting school and right after that i was sent to work at small smiles i hardly knew anything about dentistry and the laws and regulations in the dental field. small smiles told us we had to do this we don't talk about that we work fast fast fast and do as much as we can but it was never good enough! ever morning they would have a meeting about how we have to make more money in order to keep the place open. i know now that was a lie! things got so bad i watched as a doctor place a mirror so far back into a three year olds mouth that he gagged and then the doctor leaned down by his ear and told him to shut up or he will do it again!! i reported the man to the cooperate office and they promoted the doctor to regional manager!!! i couldn't take it anymore and i wanted to make dental my career and i knew i couldn't stay with small smiles and have a good conscience. Please feel free to email me back or anything I feel an obligation to help shut them down.

Sunday, April 27, 2008

4-23-08: Parents Still Complaining About Dentists Abusing Children at Small Smiles

The Below comment was posted on 4-23-2008 from a parent in New York.

It appears despite all the rhetoric the FORBA/Small Smiles Public Relations machine is putting out saying things are 'achangin'. Not one thing has changed as I've been saying all along.

Daily across the country, Small Smile's is continuing to abuse children, nothing can be more clear.

Even after numerous investigative reports from people such as Roberta Baskin, with WJLA'sDeborah Sherman 9News' Investigative Team in Denver, Karen Schideler in Wichita, Kansas and Stewart Watson with WCNC in Charlotte, NC exposing Small Smiles and other DeRose Dental Clinics they refuse to change their ways.




4-23-08

I-Team in Washinton, DC,
kayleigh said...

i took my kids to small smiles last week and it was the worst experience of my life. I went in with my 3 year old son and he screamed through out the entire procedure. he was strapped down and by the time he left he had broken blood vessels all over his neck and face from screaming. the only time they stopped was to restrap him down. their grandmother went in with my daughter and when she came out she has broken blood vessels in her eye from screaming. i've been sick to my stomach over this since i left there. i feel as though i let these people violate my kids.


To Kayleigh:

I understand how terrible you feel. You put your trust in these people to give your children the care they deserves and you were violated. They clearly advertise in such a way to get your confidence in their ability to give children the utmost in care and treatment yet they continue everyday to violate that trust as well as several ethics, and probably a few laws.

It's up to you and people like you to put a stop to this. Recently (April 1, 2008 as a matter of fact) there was a story on WRGB in New Albany about this very thing. For people to think these stories are isolated cases would be a huge mistake.

I hope you called the 800 number I have posted as well as file complaints with your state's dental board and attorney general.

I urge you to step forward and to take action, write to everyone you can about this, post where ever you can about this and file formal complaints to the places mentioned above, as well as your state legislators and call the PRESS!