Teri,

If I was in your shoes, I would take a thorough look at the teeth myself and see if there is any obvious problem. If not, I would not have the fillings placed. That's what I would do.

Remember, there is no perfect filling material. Any material that I've ever read about has some type of toxicity associated with it and to have perfectly good enamel removed to have something toxic put it (without really good cause) goes against common sense.


I know I'm pretty wordy sometimes but let me tell you about how I feel about accountability, because this relates to what we're really talking about here.

For example, I just (last week) had my old 1990 Blazer "repaired". The mechanic fixed the 4-wheel drive because when it snows, I cannot get to my house without it. When I got it back, the 4-wheel drive was not working correctly at all, yet, he tried to tell me it was. That was $200.

The next day, I brought it to another mechanic. $300 later, they had "repaired" it but it still was not working right. I did some internet research on the 4-wheel drive system and suggested to him what the problem might be. He said they already looked at that and it was fine. To make a really long story short...

I finally got fed up and took Saturday off and determined to fix it myself. Here's what I found...

The part I was told by the first mechanic had been replaced was not replaced, and in fact, could not even had been touched.

The problem that I was told was checked by the second mechanic (after I suggested that it might actually be the source of the problem) actually was the problem. So, I ended up fixing the problem myself with about $10 in parts.

Now, here's my history with this truck. It has over 350,000 miles on it. The first major problem I had was that the transmission stopped working. This turned out to be because the previous mechanic who had just done diagnostic work on it "forgot" to tighten up bolts in the transmission and all the transmission fluid leaked out totaling the transmission. (About $1200 to repair)

Then, I had a gasket go bad on the engine (a small job really) and had it replaced. This involved taking out a few head bolts. The mechanic apparently didn't know that you're supposed to seal the head bolts with a sealant before putting them back in (on this particular type of engine, which is not uncommon) and water leaked into the oil totaling the engine. (About $2200 to repair).

The bottom line is, the vast majority of money I have put into this truck was caused by mechanics.

Why?

Accountability, or lack thereof.

I believe it's no different with doctors, dentists, and many other professions as well. They are rarely made accountable and soon become arrogant about what they can get away with. When you find a professional that really cares about what he/she is doing, don't let them go.

In short, what separates the good from the bad is what they do when nobody's looking.