Getting references for your doctors

[Guest guest]

Fran and B,

You'be brought up something that I also agree is VERY important.

Always get as many references for your doctor as possible whether he

be in-network or out of network and always at least 3 references.

When I first decided to go through with the surgery I had a different

OS that I had been referred to by my dentist. He seemed nice enough

but as time progressed he was less and less available for me to ask

questions to and worse still, when ever I called his office to ask

for a phone number for one of his previous patients they could never

seem to find a number to give me. WEIRD. Eventually I went to see an

old friend of my family who also happens to be a cosmetic dentist and

told him about my decision. He immediately asked me who was doing the

surgery and said he had never heard of my doctor. Then to just

reassure me he did some research by contacting all the orthognathic

surgeons he knew and NO ONE had ever heard of my OS. Turns out that

he didn't do that many jaw surgeries to be well known, which is fine.

He might have been perfectly good but I didn't feel comfortable about

giving my jaw to someone who hadn't praticed 1000's of these

surgeries. So via several references and recommendations I got to Dr.

Sachs who turned out to be the OS who operated on me. Dr. Sachs

performs at least 4 surgeries a week, sometimes 8 and is called on

emergency when someone had broken their jaw and needs to be operated

on a regular basis. These factors and the fact that he has an

excellent bedside manned and has given me his cell phone and email

address to contact him regularly made me decide that he was the best

doctor for me. Everyone should feel as confident going into the

surgery as I did.

Just my 2 cents!

Sara

> > Here I am at 9 months and a few weeks (Oct 5th I had surgery --

> > upper and lower).

> >

> > I still have swelling in my right cheek -- I thought for sure

this

> > would have been done by now. My lower lips still tingles but I

> have

> > most of my feeling back but my chin is super sensitive so I have

> to

> > wear a goatee b/c when I shave, it hurts too much. Also, when

they

> > put my upper teeth back together (I had a 3-piece done) they

> didn't

> > line up my midline, so now it looks off. But rather than go

> through

> > that whole procedure over again, I'm just going to finish up my

> > braces and move on with my life. I AM SO SICK OF THESE BRACES!!!

> I

> > was scheduled for a second surgery tog et my midlines fixed, and

> > ins. would have paid, but then I got a kick-a$$ job offer

(doubled

> > my salary) and said, forget it!

> >

> > So.... I wish this could have been done perfectly the first

> time...

> >

> > If I can make 1 suggestion -- GET REFERENCES!!!

> >

> > of couse, my OS said he's only had to re-do 3 in his entire life

> (he

> > just turned 50).. but I think that statistic is misleading... I

> > mean, he should have re-did mine, but I didn't have the time to

go

> > through this all again... How many other ppl did he do that

> needed

> > a touch up that didn't go through it??? I'd expect there to be

> lots

> > of them..

> >

> > -B