My Dentist Made A Big Mistake On My Kids Teeth Because Of An Administration Error; What Do I Do?

Location: Canada

A couple of weeks ago, my kid had a conflict with his teeth. Hes around 12, and his canine teeth are coming in. However, for them to properly come in, 4 of his permanent teeth have to be removed. They also told me, in that appointment, that he has a cavity or two on a completely seperate of teeth. For an overview, he had two problems - a conflict with his teeth, and some cavities on a different set of teeth.

Heres the thing: I have another son, 19 now, and they said a similar thing for him. For my younger son, I told them to wait, because they were operating on distant hypotheticals, and I wanted to see how they would turn out, so I told them no, and to wait before removing any permanent teeth. I waited a year, and his teeth came out perfectly well, and we did not have to remove any teeth. I learned from that encounter that operating on distant hypotheticals and possibilities is risky, and that it's always important to be patient.

So, when I had the same problem happen to my 12 year old son a couple of months ago, I told them to wait, and to just set an appointment for filling in the cavities, but not to remove any teeth at all. To me, removing 4 permanent set teeth on a possibility of a conflict happening with his oncoming canines was too risky for me, and I wanted wait. In essence, I told them to schedule an appointment for filling in his cavities, and to wait out the possible conflict.

Now, I will get to the problem that happened today, and why it's so detrimental.

Today, I went for the filling appointment, but since I had work to tend to, I told my wife to supervise in my place. I thought that the dentists would just be filling today, and that they would brief my wife on the plan I had set with them a couple of months ago. Unbeknown to me, however, is that in their system, they had registered today's appointment as an extraction appointment, when I had thought that it would be a filling appointment, like I told them. That is what they told my wife, and what the working dentist today saw in the system. My wife, assuming I had set things that way, just went along with whatever they told them, putting full trust in the dentist. They had her sign a medical disclosure form, to acknowledge that my son has no other medical issue or condition, but from what she told me, no other form was filled out. I believe that the operation carried out with verbal consent from her, because she was completely unaware that today was meant to be filling, and because I made the assumption that they would be doing what I had scheduled them to. I don't blame her, I blame them, and the way they completely messed up today's appointment.

I was mad, and I went in to talk to them, and they tried to explain that is what the appointment was scheduled for, but I remember clearly telling them not to touch his teeth on this appointment, and to wait a bit longer. I went and got a second opinion from a dentist friend, and he told me that even if my son's canines grow in well, they would still be spread out from his other teeth, and that his teeth would look completely wrong. He told me that their choice was wrong, and agreed with my opinion that To fix this, he would need braces. Here's the problem: I am not ready for braces. I just graduated, and paying the exhorbitant non-insurance covered braces fees would be too big of a burden. That is why I wanted to wait it out - to understand the necessity of that action.

With today's events however, I am now forced to go the braces route, and I feel like I've been manipulated in a way. It should have been filling, but they removed 4 teeth that will never grow back for my son. The other dentist told me that they could have also just used braces to spread his teeth out, and make space for the canines, but they chose to go the extraction route instead.

My question is this: how do I take action now? I had been planning to stabilize first before making such a financial commitment, and I would have been a bit more okay with this a couple of months ahead, though I would have still preferred if they kept his permanent teeth, and used the braces to make space for his canine, instead of removing some perfectly good teeth.

I plan to go in tomorrow and talk to them, and make a complaint about the error they made. However, I have no way to prove that. They gave me a paper with today's appointment details when I first scheduled it a couple of weeks ago, but I did not expect today's events, and either threw it out or lost it. I have been with this center for 9 years now, and I had complete trust in them. Now, my son has lost 4 teeth that will never grow back, for the sake of 2 spaced out canines, when he could have kept all of them if they went a seperate path.

I'm sure that there must be something about filling in their system, cause I saw the dentist last time type it out. I want to know - can they go in and alter their records? Do most dentistries record phone calls? I remember confirming the details of this appointment over phone

I am now stressed out about several things - my son's teeth and health, and the financial burden of braces that I do not understand.

What are my next steps, if any? I'd rather avoid any lawsuits as of yet, because of the fees, but we'll see how things go