Hi....My children and I have both had dental work done in the past couple of months. This was our first visit to this particular dentist. When I had my consultation I was advised what the costs would be for each procedure. I advised the office manager that I would be paying from my HSA and asked if I could be put on a payment plan for any outstanding balances. They told me yes, so I preceeded to make appts.

I have had the preliminary work done for a crown, before I can have the crown put in I have been asked to pay the balance in full or 60% ($300) which I do not have. I have $174 left on my HSA card, I asked the office manager if I could pay that amount and make monthly payments on the rest. I was told that I need to pay at least the 60% I stressed to them that I could not pay amt all at once and they advised me to go to carecredit.com which I found was an application for a credit card that charges up to 24.99% interest. This is rediculous.

What should I do I have unfinished work which could ultimately lead to infection. How can I get the dentist to work with me so I can make monthly payments that I can afford without being charged a finance rate? Iam unsure if I should file a complaint or not.

Help!

You can contact your state board that licenses dentists. Have you browsed through the information in LawInfo's Free Legal Resource Center to learn more about your issue yet? See: http://www.lawinfo.com/consumer.html and http://resources.lawinfo.com/en/index.html. You can certainly try to speak to a lawyer to determine what legal options may be available. In the meantime, you may be able to learn more on your own. Search the "Free Legal Resources" tab, or browse the Consumer Resources. Good luck.

Just like everyone else dentists have what is called a "duty of care" towards their patients - that is a duty to ensure that they receive proper treatment, in the proper manner. If they fail in this duty, and the person they are treating suffers in any way as a result, then the victim has a potential claim.

It all comes down to trying to establish whether the actions taken, or, perhaps even not taken, were reasonable in all the circumstances. Some cases will be more straightforward than others - removing healthy teeth, or administering unnecessary treatment for example may be relatively straightforward. However dentistry is a complex area, where opinions often differ, and therefore there may be scope for argument on both sides in many cases, as with clinical negligence. For this reason it is essential that parties who decide that they do wish to pursue a claim for dental negligence use a medical negligence lawyer who is experienced in this type of case. They will be used to the terminology, procedures and complexities of the issues involved, and they will have the relevant medical and legal knowledge, and contacts, to ensure the case is thoroughly investigated and pursued.