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If you feel there was willful or careless disregard of your wishes, as a long-time customer, you can raise this with the billing person.
Lots of service providers make expensive mistakes. I often have to pay people to repair things twice. If you can't afford it, be humble in your approach and ask for a waived fee. It does not cost them what they bill you. They may waive it if you are honest and allow the hygienist to save face. |
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| If he didn't have the pano in the last 3-5 years and something came up you would be mad. And you could sue. It's a needed x-ray of your whole mouth and jaw. And they did find something. Just pay the bill. |
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As a parent of two adult children with disabilities who attend medical appointments alone but typically are terrible About navigating it, I feel like yo want us to validate your feelings but keep leaving out essential information.
That being said, here’s my take. My goal is to help my sons become independent. I imagine that is yours as well. And that results in mistakes, all of which cost me money. This would fall into that bucket of me. Your child clearly gave permission and was clearly competent to do so. If you didn’t want X-rays done, you should have communicated that to your child so they could decline. If you had and they still authorized the X-rays, then you have work to do with your child so they check with you if you want that control. If you don’t, that’s on you. But since it’s standard of care, the dentist was absolutely right to offer it. So no, I wouldn’t be upset. I’d hate an unplanned for bill. But that’s kind of the way life goes for parents. |
Your adult son may have said "go ahead" and that's all of the consent they need. You go every 3 months? Excessive. A shortened root is very common after ortho, nothing needs to be done unless its problematic. Again, your "lividness" is unwarranted--they don't need to get your approval |
Do you make his medical decisions? If not, button it |
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If you have some kind of medical guardianship over him, I would send them documentation of your conversation with the hygienist where you said no to the panoramic and ask for them to waive the fee and acknowledge that you have the final say on expensive procedures.
If your assistance for your kid doesn't rise to that level, then you should be more clear with either your son or the practice that you won't pay bills for things you don't consider necessary, chalk this up to a learning experience ("need to set medical boundaries"), and move on. I assume you have a lot of faith and confidence in this practice because you're there an astonishing 4x a year even before any "procedures" are suggested, but it also may be just a sign that you're an easy mark, they know you're a mark, and they will bleed you as long as the blood runs red. |
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If you make medical decisions for him then y you need to accompany him to every dr visit. I have severe learning disabilities and go to all medical appointments alone (though I got picked up from my wisdom teeth removal surgery).
If you didn't go with him then the only person you should be angry at is yourself. |
In no way would I expect a hygienist to remember something I said 3 months ago. If you want to go against standard guidelines you need to state that each and every time. They don’t have a way to set a reminder to ask you “in a few years.” They have a professional duty to offer the recommended screenings and services. The irony is there are many dentists out there who will do way worse in terms of pushing unnecessary procedures. So if you leave this practice, beware. |
| You are over-reacting. Get over this. Surely you have bigger things to worry about. And expecting a hygienist to remember a conversation with you (who is NOT the patient) several months later after she's probably seen hundreds of other patients is ridiculous, borderline narcissistic. You are not the center of anyone's world besides your own. |
| Why is your adult child going every three months? |
Lady- you needed to say that up front. In fact you went out of your way to characterize it as just something nice you were doinf for him, when, in fact, you havr medical guardianship over him. Come on. Your whole question is in a whole different paradigm right now. You probably need to go with him if you are going to be concerned about costs. |
| I can’t understand why you go there for cleanings every 3 months. Especially when it sounds like you don’t have insurance. They probably think you’re made of money and nervous about every little thing so they can get more money out of you. |