Please Read if Your Kids Are Patients of Kids Teeth, LLC

[Anonymous]

My name is Mary Otto and Im a reporter for the Washington Post. I often write about dental care issues. I noticed this forum thread about Dr. Alalouf and am hoping to put together a story for the Health Section, not just about this particular case but about the idea of people exchanging information about health care providers in a forum like this. I am interesting in contacting a few of you about this subject in the next day or so. Are websites and listserves important sources of information for you about health care providers? How do you weigh the information you receive? Do you use other sources for getting information such as magazines parents groups, coworkers? If you have a few minutes for an interview, please call me at 410-626-2802 or send me an email at [e-mail] and let me know when you might be available and how to reach you. My story is due by the end of Wednesday. Sincerest thanks, Mary Otto

[Anonymous]

I have known Dr. Alalouf professionally and socially for more than 10 years. I have always found him to be compassionate, ethical, and a very good clinician. As you know, anyone can accuse anyone else of anything they like. It doesn't have to come close to the truth to destroy a person's reputation. I hope none of you will have to experience defending yourselves in this manner. I would bet my last dollar, there isn't a dentist in this country who hasn't had at least one patient believe a cavity was filled when it didn't need to be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have read through the whole thing over and over again. Debating if I should join the bashing. I am in the medical field, and bashing a doctor for any reason is unethical to me. I have been to Dr. A. my son was treated. My son was put to sleep. My husband and I were told treatment was being done. We were told the facts and understood & agreed. BUT: More work than discussed was done, it was not noticed until an additional xray from another dentist was done. My son is 2, DR. A has children. How could he of all people live with himself knowing that he did this to other child granted my son felt no pain? We had a nice bit of change go to his pocket, but my son will never know, but we will. I have refereed all my friends to Dr. A. I have had him come to my son’s daycare and do talks. The hygienist does the checking and then brings in the Dr. they have to know what is going on. The office is great; the girls are there. I would love to work in an office that goes to all of those trips out of the country.
I do wish all the parents luck in the future with their children and hope that no other parent has had to go through what we have had to go through.
Everyone is talking about all the work done now. But what about the future
My son is a living example of problems after unnecessary treatment was done. We have had 5 dentist review the films that were taken before it was done and none of which was needed.
We trusted him. We felt comfortable with him. Now I as a parent have to live with myself that I aloud my child to undergo treatment that I was told necessary and it wasn't. I beat myself up everyday that I didn't get a second opinion.
I have friends that don't have a problem, and everything is ok. Then I talk to people and they say, yes my daughter did great he put her to sleep. My son did great they put him to sleep. My child did great they put them to sleep.
Have any of these people had another dentist review the mouth after.
My son was treated by both Dr. A & Dr. M.
Please all parents don’t feel the regrets that I have, always get a second opinion!!!!!!!

If more work was required while under, I am quite certain Dr. Alalouf would have come out to tell you before moving forward with additional fillings, etc. You make him out that he just did this on his own without your consent.

It was already done, I was told after the fact.

[Anonymous]

My son was diagnosed with 4 cavities by Dr. Alalouf in late March. Dr Alalouf looked at the x-rays and Dr. Medani did the general exam (i.e. poking at his mouth with those little probe things -- sorry I don't know the terminology). Dr Alalouf told me he had 4 cavities and needed 3 appointments to fill them, using nitrous or general anesthesia depending on how compliant he was. After learning about Dr. Alalouf's problems, I cancelled his cavity filling apointments. I took him to my own adult dentist today, taking along the x-rays from Kids Teeth. My dentist did an exam and looked at the x-rays, and said he saw no cavities at all. I'm trying to figure out how to report this, does anyone know?

[Anonymous]

I'm the poster above who just had my son's teeth rechecked by my own dentist. I got a copy of the consent decree Dr. Alalouf signed, available from the Dental Board. It quoted at least 9 other cases where he did unnecessary work, dating from 2001. All checked by other dentists. If you don't believe it, get a copy yourself. It's 49 pages.

[Anonymous]

I do not think what is happening to Dr. A is professional jelousy. Look at the document and look at what parents are writing about the unecessary dental work that is being done to their children. Why does a pediatric dentist have 2 days designated at Shady Grove? To me that is strange. The bottom line is go with your gut. Mine is telling me run like hell!!

[Anonymous]

Who says that Dr. Alalouf has/had 2 days at Shady Grove? From what I know he has/had Friday mornings only and was/is the pediatric dentist "on call" on a rotation. Before posting something that isn't necessarily true, find out for sure before decimating his character altogether. He is a good man, physician, husband, father and friend to many people including several of his patients. I am glad to see there are people who will continue with his practice. This is a difficult field to be in and as someone posted previous, I bet every dentist has at least 1 or 2 complaints against them. You just don't know about it.

[Anonymous]

Our kids have been patients of Kids Teeth, LLC for many years. What we like most about the practice is its proactive approach to treating our kid's teeth. I suspect that any dental practice will have its share of mishaps and am sure that the statistics would show that out of the thousands of kids Dr Alaloof has treated, only a few, maybe less than 0.1% of the total, actually had these issues. We love the practice Dr Alaloof has created and he has done an amazing job with our kid's teeth. FYI, our kids love him and they are really bad with doctors. While it appears that it may have been noted in the court documents that there were some issues, it is too bad that these reports don't give a true picture of the number of patients Dr Alaloof treated during these times that were pleased with his work. Again, I suspect that probably less than 0.1% of the total were dissatisfied. I think people should look within themselves and get the full picture of what is going on. My family will continue to use Dr Alaloof's practice and, specifically, Dr. Alaloof. He is a great dentist and it is too bad that people don't try to understand the full details before jumping to conclusions. I hope that he rebounds from this setback and that those who were happy with him before this circulated stick by him. We are for sure!

[Anonymous]

My kids have been patients of Dr. Alalouf for several years now. Dr. A provides a good service in a wonderful environment. Dr. A has made house calls and taken late night phone calls. Dr. A has earned the trust of my kids and me from years of consistently good dentistry. I will continue to send my kids to Dr. A no matter what is posted or rumored about. Dr. A is a good dentist and a good person. Dr. A has the support of me and my family. Mary Otto, be sure to print that in the Washington Post!

[Anonymous]

I think it would be useful to know how many of the posts on this topic are written by the same person.

[Anonymous]

I do not know Dr. Alalouf but I am wondering, as a person who works in the medical field, if perhaps he was mostly guilty of not keeping good enough records? If the cavities were not significant enough to show up on the radiographs, Dr. Alaouf should have written detailed notes in the patients' charts as to why the cavities needed to be filled, etc. etc. If he was not diligent enough in his record keeping, the board can only go by what is in the charts.

[Anonymous]

I have taken my son to Kid's Teeth for 3 years. When my son was 5 and diagnosed with multiple cavities, we went to Shady Grove and he got them all filled by Dr Madani. The Shady Grove Hospital part of the bill was steep but I was shocked at how little was charged by the dentist (actually, Dr. Madani did the surgery). Dr. Madani diagnosed my son's cavities at a routine check-up and that night Dr. A looked at the x-rays and confirmed the need for the multiples cavities needing to be filled. We met Dr. Madani at the hospital at 8 am and he must have devoted about 3 hours of his time to us. I forget how much the bill was but it wasn't bad at all. I was shocked.

Both Dr. Madani and Dr. A were involved in my son's diagnosis and treatment plan and I am so glad that we went the surgery route. Now my son has sealants, many of the pits in his molars are filled and the cavities in between his teeth are filled. He no longer gets cavities since having the surgery.

Both dentists are sincere, compassionate and honest dentists. Dr. A is a very humble, honest and compassionate dentist and human being. We all know that all humans make mistakes and Dr. A unfortunately made a mistake at the wrong time. All of us hear stories of doctors who miss a diagnosis, give a wrong medication to a patient or recommend or don't recommend surgery to a patient who may or may not need it. This kind of error in judgement is normal and part of human nature. Medicine is not an exact science. There are not always cut and dry answers. So Dr. A may have made a decision that might not have been the best decision for his patient a couple of times, but all doctors do this once in a while.

In my life, if a dentist or doctor recommends a treatment that I do not agree with, I calmly get a second opinion. I don't go and try and smear a dentist or doctor's reputaion via the internet or in other ways just because I don't agree with his/her decision. It's my responsibility to get a second opinion and decide whether I want to go ahead with a doctor or dentist's recommended treatment plan.

The practice of getting second opinions before surgery would not exist if all doctors/dentist were always right all of the time.

Cut Dr. A and his practice a little slack. They are dentists who are loved by 99.9% of their patients and have given so much to the kids in our community.

[Anonymous]

i know every patient signs a consent form before their child is treated. is dr. a. supposed to leave the o.r. while the child is sedated to tell the parents about any additional cavities found? if a parent doesn't understand how additional cavities can be seen once the original decay has been removed, they are not asking enough questions. clearly we didn't all go to dental school, but to not fully understand this process and still allow your child to sedated seems crazy to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

In my life, if a dentist or doctor recommends a treatment that I do not agree with, I calmly get a second opinion. I don't go and try and smear a dentist or doctor's reputaion via the internet or in other ways just because I don't agree with his/her decision. It's my responsibility to get a second opinion and decide whether I want to go ahead with a doctor or dentist's recommended treatment plan.

The practice of getting second opinions before surgery would not exist if all doctors/dentist were always right all of the time.

Poster from 04/28/2008 16:26 and 04/28/2008 16:31 here:

You know, I did just that. I got a second opinion and found out that the diagnosis was completely wrong -- my son has no cavities. I could cut Dr. Alalouf some slack on one cavity, but 4? It had nothing to do with record keeping; the teeth were clearly identified in the treatment plan I was given. In conjuction with the suspension by the dental board, mostly due to complaints about unnecessary work, why would anyone trust this dentist? I'm just annoyed that you have to call the dental board and get a fax to check out dentists' records. I always check up on all the licences/malpractice suits etc. for all other medical professionals my family sees. That info is available via an internet search (for Maryland at least). The dental board info should be too.

[Anonymous]

Reading these posts has opened my eyes to how truly maliciously the community is treating Dr. A. I find it outrageous that there is more mud-slinging about Dr. A and his practice than when a local clergy was caught on Dateline's show "To Catch a Predator." That clergy was suspected of being a pedophile, yet there was little buzz on the internet or in the media about it. Dr. A has his share of legal troubles, but they pale in comparison to the damage to his reputation that he's sustaining in the court of public opinion. It just seems so out of proportion and out of control. I can't wrap my hands around how many people have jumped online to ruin his reputation and how many people have so callously spread rumors and gossip about him and his practice.

I'm all for free speech, but when will this madness stop? At what cost? Which pediatrician, internist, surgeon, or (heavens forbid) attorney will be judged next by the lot of you? I, for one, pray that it is not me! If I have even half the strength of Dr. A and his family, I don't know if I (or my family) could withstand being the object of such a witch hunt. Given what I have been hearing and reading, I will be watching my back! My faith in the goodness of this community is being tested, that is for sure.