My Braces Saga - Pt 3

When I went for my second adjustment, at the beginning of August, I again told Dr. Lehman about all the problems I had been having; reminding him that I'd spent June in physical therapy where they dismissed me becuase they couldn't help me and now my only attempt at relief was a daily trip to the chiropractor, and that the chiropracter had hit on the idea that it might be a problem in my TMJ joint. At this point he said that if it was that bad the only thing we could do was take the braces off. But, let's give it a few more weeks and see how you do....

I still have no idea what the point of giving it a few more weeks was and man I wish I hadn't.

The next 3 weeks were the worst yet. The headaches continued to be constant, often completely resistant to the meds. In addition I got sick with a UTI, making me feel worse. But to add insult to injury, I ended up at Urgent Care to find out I had an ulcer from all the pain meds I'd been taking. I spent every day of my last week in braces either in a drs office, having a test run, at urgent care, or in the ER (again for a migraine).

During this time I had done a lot of research online regarding TMJ and confirmed that was definately my issue... stiff neck, headaches, numbness/tingling down my arm, ringing in my ears, the list goes on... I had it all.

I decided to see if I could get some other opinions. It's not like I got braces just to look good.. I got them because I was told it was the only way to keep my gums from receeding to the point that I would have to go through gum grafting again (as I did in January). When I researched TMJ specialists the closest one I could find was about an hour away. I called him and he told me to remove the braces and if the problem didn't abate in a week or so to call him. I kept looking and found Dr. Clifton Simmons in Nashville, after emailing him the run-down of what had been going on he told me to come inthat he could help me. He confirmed that I do have a TMJ problem and said that I've probably had it for years but that it was activated most likely by the way my mouth had to be open and the pressure from inserting the spacers.

So Monday was my day to go back to Dr. Lehman to "re-assess". The TMJ specialist from Albertville I had spoken to on the phone had called him so he knew I'd been doing research. He just walked in the room and asked what I wanted to do. I said well a lot depends on how much money Im going to lose? He couldn't give me a straight answer as to the refund I would recieve (I had paid for my entire treatment upfront). Then he asked me what the specialist had said and I told him. His response" That's Bullshit". His attitude went downhill from there till I finally said "just take them off". I didn't want his work in my mouth any longer.

Upon further thought that night and reviewing the notes from the specialist, we decided that taking them off may not be for the best, especially not having them removed by him (if he did so with the attitude and aggressiveness he had shown so far), as it could make the problems worse. Yesterday morning I didn't know what to do. On one hand I wanted them off, on the other hand I didn't want him touching me again.

I called to find out how much of a refund I'd be getting and they told me they were keeping $1700 (out of $4900). Since I'd never even had the bottom braces put on and I'd only had 3 months of treatment, I felt this was a bit excessive and I let them know as much. I was pissed.

Dr Lehman is a bully. Every time I ever questioned him when I saw him for my adjustments or tried to tell him what was going on he just blew me off or cut me off then walked out of the room to leave his assistant to finish up.

Over the course of the last 3 months I have been unable to work for a good month and a half. I've lost close to a grand in uncovered expenses and co-pays for medical bills related to this. And I've had to cancel two trips, one of which cost me over $300 in cancellation fees. All that on top of 3 months of migraines, and ulcer, a trip to urgent care and another one to the ER (it remains to be seen if that will be covered by insurance).