She Never Attended an Appointment, but Judged the Care

The wife of my patient posted a bad review about a partial denture that I delivered to a patient. She made false claims about my character and made claims that the dental work was subpar just because she didn’t like the look of it, even though I was made to match the patients smile and bite based off of my clinical expertise, patient comfort, and overall approval from the patient upon delivery. None of this the wife was privy to because she never attended any appointments with the patient, she was not an authorized recipient or representative for the patient, and she never reached out to me or our office with any concerns or questions before posting such a misleading and false review. I take pride in my work and had built great trust and rapport with the patient. It affected me mentally and emotionally seeing a bad review that I knew I didn’t earn. After reading the review, I followed up with the patient to ask if he was satisfied with the partial denture and even offered to redo it free of charge if there were any issues with it. Even though I knew the review was false, my patient’s comfort and satisfaction are always a priority. When contacted, the patient reassured me that he loves it, and it’s only his wife that doesn’t like it and that he didn’t want it redone. Although reassuring, I still couldn’t help but feel slighted that the review still remains posted. As doctors, it is unethical for us to ask a patient to remove a review, even if it is false or makes baseless claims. This is unfair to doctors who sacrifice so much for our patients and have sacrificed so much for our training and reputation.

What actually happened is that the patient had a previous old crown on one of his front teeth that was darker than the rest of his teeth, and he didn’t want to replace the crown with a lighter shade to match the rest of his teeth but he wanted to partial denture teeth to match the rest of his teeth. And he said he may consider changing the crown in the future, but it wasn’t an aesthetic concern for him. The patient picked his own shade. He reassured me the doctor that function and bite was his concern, so that he could eat better. The shade matching of an old crown was an aesthetic issue and non of his concern at the moment. So, naturally when the partial was delivered, the partial matched his natural teeth well, but the shade didn’t match the old crown in the front exactly, as previously discussed and approved by the patient. There should have been no reason why the review mentioned that the partial denture was subpar dental work or that the patient was unsatisfied or given bad service because that was not the case. The review was inaccurate and made by someone who was not even at the initial visits.

My practice was deeply affected because we pride ourselves on patient satisfaction, and our reviews always reflect that. I felt very depressed and anxious having this stain put on me and my practice. It was totally opposite of who we are.

Yes, as mentioned before I tried to ask the patient if they would like a new partial denture free of charge that may match the rest of the teeth or for us to change the crown free of charge, and once again my patient declined. He seemed to almost find it embarrassing that his wife posted such a bad review because he genuinely likes his partial denture.