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

[Anonymous]

Same mom here again about the letter--

I think the above would have been a perfect letter to send to his patients.

[Anonymous]

How do you get a copy of the findings?

[Anonymous]

My kids have been going to a wonderful caring and very knowledgeable dentist in Dr Alalouf. A few years ago my daughter was seen by a general dentist and She did not enjoy the visit . I was told she needed some dental work done. Several of my friends and doctor recommended seeing a pediatric dentist and referred me to Dr. Alalouf at Kids Teeth.

My child is squeamish and has a strong mind. However, Dr. Alalouf has an amazing demeanor and patience with children.
He told me that my child had a clean bill of health and just try to work on flossing. His hygenist patiently showed my child the correct way to floss. I have been using his practice for several years with my children and have been extremely pleased with both dentists in the practice.
I see no reason to join a bandwagon to leave a practice when Dr. Alalouf has always been conservative and caring with my kids . Just by walking into the office you can feel the general caring they have for children.

FYI - in response to another post maybe the waiting area has water falls and games so other siblings are entertained while their silbing is at the dentist. For me, I can not just pay a babysitter to watch my other child while a silbing has a dentist appointment and my husband can not just take off work.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know if it is true that there is a class action lawsuit against the MD Dental Board for persecuting dentists of arab descent or muslim dentists? That is something I heard. Perhaps this is one of those such cases (he has a rather different sounding name, do not know his background). I can sympathize with Dr. A for all he is going through and understand his desire to put this behind him and settle. I stand behind him 100% based on my wonderful experiences with him and do not believe for one minute he would jeopardize any children for a buck. In the 8 years that we have known him and he has treated our children, I just refuse to believe it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son was found to have more than 10 cavities. I was told that he was not behaving appropriately and that the only way to repair the cavities was via general anesthesia.
As a physician, I have seen too many undesirable long term consequences of general anesthesia, consequences that are very difficult to evaluate. For example, subtle changes in problem solving abilitty, speed to make mathematics calculation, reading comprehension speed.
I found differences in opinion regarding the nature of the cavities and their importance and what to do about them.
Eventually my son was treated very well without genereal anesthesia.
I took him outside the US, where work was completed without any anesthesia. It took more time and patience.

What? If this is an example of the type of patients who complained then I would guess that it had more to do with insane expectations by parents who are more than a little off. Are you telling me there was not one competent dentist in all of the US? Talk about difficult.

[Anonymous]

I would love to know which 25 random cases (were these in addition to the original complainants?) were examined. I wonder if the board cares whether or not those random families were happy with the care, or felt it was extreme. We were given the option of Shady Grove, or multiple office visits to fill a mouthful of cavities, and chose Shady Grove because it would cause less stress and fear than 4 visits. Nitrous works well at a single appointment, but used repeatedly, in a short amount of time, it can have a lesser effect. Sometimes, it's better to just do everything at once, and save your child the agony of multiple procedures. Each of us has to make that decision for ourselves and our families. I was, however, upset by the letter he sent to all of us-- my husband and I feel it was intentionally uninformational, and we have both requested a copy of the board's report several times now, and gotten no reply, despite leaving call back numbers, fax numbers and email addresses. For those that have seen the report, were his diagnoses proven to be wrong (there were no cavities afterall?) or was it his over-use of anesthesia, or hospital time, or all, that the board found objectionable?
We are staying with him, until we see the report and it convinces us otherwise. We have had nothing but great experiences with Kids Teeth and Dr. A.

[Anonymous]

In response to your last post, this was his statement, as for the letter, we too were upset, but we are both attorneys and we know that sometimes you are not allowed to say anything. We cant speculate to why that letter was sent but knowing Dr. A, he's not dumb, he knew the truth was out, maybe he just needed to inform his patients of his leave before he was really "able" to. Who knows???

After being charged with violations by the Maryland Dental Board, and after consultation with my attorneys, I agreed to a Consent Order to resolve those accusations. We did not negotiate any terms of the factual findings and do not necessarily agree with each and every factual statement. I found cavities on examination of some patients, and some other dentists did not see those cavities when looking at the x-rays. The Board did not like the amount of times I used general anesthesia for young patients, even though the parents had agreed that such treatment was best for their children.

I have resolved these charges with the Board. I have been suspended from May 2 to August 31, 2008. During this time, I will be taking educational courses. I will return to my office and continue to practice dentistry on September 2, 2008.

We support Kids Teeth and always will!

[Anonymous]

I uploaded a copy of the complaint to yousendit.com. It will be available for 7 days or 100 downloads.

http://download.yousendit.com/FC6930481F7BEB7E

[Anonymous]

Thank you so much for sending it. I thought it was so much worse than it actually is. All this hype for that? so, he found some cavities in teeth that others had not (6 years ago). You've made my choice that much easier. I urge people to read this themselves, you'll see its not as horrible as people are making it out to be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In response to your last post, this was his statement, as for the letter, we too were upset, but we are both attorneys and we know that sometimes you are not allowed to say anything. We cant speculate to why that letter was sent but knowing Dr. A, he's not dumb, he knew the truth was out, maybe he just needed to inform his patients of his leave before he was really "able" to. Who knows???

After being charged with violations by the Maryland Dental Board, and after consultation with my attorneys, I agreed to a Consent Order to resolve those accusations. We did not negotiate any terms of the factual findings and do not necessarily agree with each and every factual statement. I found cavities on examination of some patients, and some other dentists did not see those cavities when looking at the x-rays. The Board did not like the amount of times I used general anesthesia for young patients, even though the parents had agreed that such treatment was best for their children.

I have resolved these charges with the Board. I have been suspended from May 2 to August 31, 2008. During this time, I will be taking educational courses. I will return to my office and continue to practice dentistry on September 2, 2008.

We support Kids Teeth and always will!

Thank you family of attorneys! you stated the obvious... I'm sure there is so much Dr. Alalouf and his staff want to say, but are not allowed to. We all have to remember this is a legal case, and I'm sure he is very limited on what he can talk about. I'm proud of everyone who is sticking by him, and posting all of you wonderful experiences you have had there. If things were as bad as everyone is making it out to be he wouldnt be practicing again... 4 months is not an extremly long time. My kids, and my sister's kids and my cousin's kids are all staying... we believe in Dr. Alalouf, Dr.Madani, and all of the wonderful people at Kids Teeth.

Last thing, one post asked if this happens to other dentists and we just don't knowabout it. The answer is YES! If you go to the dental board website you can look up all of the dentists in our area who have had suspension, and other actions taken against them for a million different reasons. This just seems to have blown up, i think partly due to his popularity.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the download-- that was so helpful! Now we can say we've read it and we STILL want Dr. A to be our children's dentist.
Regarding him billing for procedures that were not initially consented to, I specifically remember signing a waiver before our daughter underwent anesthesia at Shady Grove stating Dr. A had our consent to repair any other problem areas he found while she was under.
We are absolutely thrilled he will be back in September- just in time for our kids 6-month check ups!

[Anonymous]

Dr. A. has always been nothing but caring, consciencious, considerate and kind to his patients, their families as well as his staff...He is a good dentist and the accusations are out of proportion. I am sure he will do whatever he has to do to regain his wonderful reputation and staus in the community. He deserves no less. Hopefully those of us behind him will encourage others to see the truth and lend support .

[Anonymous]

MY 4 CHILDREN HAVE BEEN SEEN AT THIS PRACTICE FOR OVER 7 YEARS! I AM A RETIRED DENTAL ASSISTANT AND AM VERY OBSERVANT OF HOW THIS PRACTICE WORKS. FIRST, USUALLY THE HYGENIST IS THE ONE WHO NOTES ANY FOUND CAVITIES AND THEN THEY ARE THEN CHECKED BY THE DENTIST. XRAYS ARE NOT THE ONLY TOOL USED IN FINDING CAVITIES. DR.A AND DR. MADANI HAVE BOTH SEEN MY CHILDREN, AND I AM ONE WHO KNOWS THE DENTAL FIELD, KNOWS THESE DENTIST DO QUALITY WORK AND CARE ABOUT EACH CHILD THEY SEE.
I THINK THE STAFF AND THE DENTISTS HERE ARE TOP NOTCH.
IF YOU CHOOSE TO CHANGE DENTISTS IT WILL BE YOUR LOSS AND YOUR CHILDS LOSS OF REALLY QUALITY CARE.
I THINK THIS PRACTICE WILL SURVIVE THIS SITUATION AND I ONLY THINK IT IS A SITUATION.

[Anonymous]

I love Dr. Gary Greenbaum. He isn't a "pediatric dentist" per se, but I've been taking my son to him since he was 6. Do you really need pediatric dentists?? Dr. Greenbaum is kind, patient, and very fair. He's located right on Shady Grove Road in Falls Grove. He's at Falls Grove Center for Dentistry. His number is 301-610-9909. Good luck. I had originally seen Dr. Alalouf for my son when he was 5, but after he charged me $90 to remove a loose baby tooth during a routine cleaning - and didn't tell me the charge before he did it - I didn't go back to his office!!

[Anonymous]

I have so much to say, that I'm not really sure where to start. I am addressing the areas related to Dr. A being out for the money; the length of the suspension (quite short); our experiences; the horrible nature of some of these posts.

Our experience with Dr. A suggests that he is not "out for the money". I have two stories - one has to do with me. My daughter was only 12 months old and we had not added her to our dental insurance yet. She had a problem with her teeth. We took her to Dr. A, figuring we would pay out of pocket. He did not charge us for the visit. In addition, I know someone whose daughter had a tooth abscess. She was quite ill. The family took her to Shady Grove. The family is of limited income and had no insurance. Dr. A saw her in the hospital several times for free. I'm not sure if he still does this, but at the time, he was the DDS that was called in for patients at Shady Grove with no insurance.

This suspension is for a very short time - ONLY 4 months. I used to work with NIDCR (National Institute for Dental and Craniofacial Research). A suspension of 4 months is very minor. In addition to reading the report, I feel if the board really had concerns, they would suspend him for at least a year.

I have been taking my children to Dr. A for over 5 years. We have been very happy. The care we have received has been exceptional. My son did have a small cavity between his teeth. Dr. A showed me on the x-ray where it was and gave us a couple options. He was extremely ethical. He also explained everything in terms that my husband and son were able to explain. He is kind, ethical, and a very good dentist. If one knows how the assessment of cavities is done, there is a fine line between what some dentists might fill and others might watch. The downside of excessive decay is that it can cause serious problems. I would rather have a filling than have a tooth abscess/infection. Dr. A was only trying to do what he thought was best based on the training he received and his experience. If anyone posting these things has been to see him, they would know that he is kind and caring, and not "out for the money only". He really seems to love what he does.

I see Dr. Stern and Dr. Greenbaum. Both dentists know that I take my kids to Dr. A. Both have always said wonderful things about him. In addition, Dr. A's staff love him. Usually when there is a problem, there is high staff turnover. He is such a great person and does not deserve all these really negative horrible things that people are saying. He and his family live here, give a lot of time and money to the community, and are just really good people.

I have lived here all my life and am quite shocked by the venom in these posts. It is really sad that so many people have so much anger. I care about my kids dental care and will make my decision just like everyone else here. In the end, you do what you need to do. I just don't understand the need to be so vile and try to "sway everyone" to your way of thinking.