Sunday, August 21, 2011

Positive Dental is Actually Negative

Dear Reader

If you stumbled upon this page while looking for reviews for dentists in Hyderabad or Positive Dental clinic, you are at the right place. I have done nothing but shared my experience with positive dental which was far from positive. But you are wise and I don't want you to go by my words alone. Check the facts by yourself and pay them a visit. But before you start your treatment with them, think again and assess the risk you might be taking, afterall it's your teeth.


If you are looking for a quick summary of this large write up here it is:

i) Unprofessional staff, dentists are perhaps interns from some colleges performing surgeries on unsuspecting people risking their well being.

ii) Every time you visit, you will see new faces, you will not be treated by the same doctor who started your treatment. This is the most risky part of dental treatment.

iii) You will be given recommendation to go for unnecessary treatments. If you are an IT professional, chances are you will end up paying a huge premium on actuall cost of treatment. That's a norm in Madhapur area - we pay a premium of being IT professionals.

iv) Unprofessional way of keeping dental history. Still following old way of writing patient's names in register. Not worth the money you will be charged. Similar quality of service you can get in a govertment hospital for free.

If you need more details of what made me list down such observations - read on:

Now, I have problems with my teeth dating back to 2005. I accidentaly keep chipping my teeth and then have to get a filling done. I had ignored one such broken tooth which led to a painful root canal treatment. In 2005 I used to live in Begumpet area because Hi Tech city was just a small village during that time and my IT company was located in Somajiguda. I got that tooth (upper chewing) fixed at Vivekanand Dental Hospital near Pulla Reddy Sweet shop in Somajiguda. Doctor was some Mr Reddy, and he was nice and polite and really did his job well. I got a root canal treatment and a filling of a nearby tooth which was also chipped. Then in late 2005, I moved to Madhapur area. Within 3-4 months the crown that was put on my RCT tooth came out. It was horrible and painful. I went back to Vivekanand Hospital and they got me a new crown immediately for no cost. They took the responsibility of replacing the crown. They had neatly kept the records of treatments and visits I made and they handled it professaionally.

Fast forward to 2010, I got my another tooth chipped. This time lower chewing tooth. It was very painful whenever anything cold or hot touches the sensitive part of the tooth. I decided to go to Vivekanand Hospital again. But upon recommendation of one of my friends who had been to newly opened positive dental clinic for some treatment, I decided to give it a try. I acted lazy thinking Somajiguda is too far and it's better to have a dentist near the house.

Positive Dental Clinic in Madhapur, Hi Tech city (opposite the police station signal) had opened sometime in Early 2010. I know, because I had shifted to Kavuri Hills recently from Kondapur area just a walk away from Positive Dental clinic. There were ads and a pursuasive promotional campaign when it opened.

So I went to Positive dental and a nice lady did the initial check up. Since it had opened new, there was no consultation fee at that time. She recommended some of the treatments (cleaning the stains, and a couple of fillings). I decided to go for fillings. When I went to surgery chair, it was some other gentleman who performed the fillings. He did a good job.

I made the payment. Since I had left my phone number with them, they kept calling me to get the cleaning done, while I kept postponing. They persistently kept calling for a month, so I finally decided that let me get the cleaning also done.

When I went to the clinic again to get the cleaning done. The receptionist was different, and doctors were also different. There was a different annoying lady this time who did the cleaning. She looked more like a student than an actual dentist. She did cleaning with an annoying face, and kept pestering me to keep my mouth open. Now, you can understand how long a person keep the mouth open - jaws start aching. So I told her - 'Mam, I don't get this done everyday. My jaws are aching, so let me just relax and then you can start again'. Her way of doing cleaning was clearly showing she was just a student, may be doing her intership or something. Overall very unprofessional and I am happy I didn't get any complicated thing done on my teeth by her.

I also kept visiting the Clinic with my friend who also has weak teeth and keeps getting them chipped every now and then. I was always surprised to see a new receptionist every time and except for one doctor everybody else used to be new. We almost visited every three months for regular check ups and sometimes for some fillings.

A month ago, I had gone to for a trek and during that time I got another tooth chipped. Next day I got an appointment with the Positive dental to get it fixed. When I arrived I saw a new receptionist as usual and a new doctor again. This young dude looked like a student again. I told him I got my tooth chipped. But he did his regular check up and recommended two fillings and some laser therapy for gingivitus and cleaning overall amounting to 5-6k. I just told him to do the fillings.

He was also a big brainless idiot. He kept asking me to keep my mouth open and open more during 15 minutes treatment. I told him again the same thing I told the previous woman. But this *(*(#($*, after filling the tooth grind my natural tooth on the other side of filling. I didn't realise it until I came out of clinic and ate something and it felt sensitive on the tooth. I felt scared because exposed tooth is the first step towards another root canal. I kept brushing with Sensodyne to make sure that sensitivity goes away but I need to get it checked soon to make sure no big damage has occurred.

After a few days, I went again with my friend whose filling came out suddenly after just 3 months. This time again there were new people around and new doctors except one. Every time you go there they insist on getting registered again. They don't have any computer to maintain the records and still using old method of writing records in registers. If one has to get their dental hisotry, I think they will have to give an RTI application and wait for months because their records are just so messed up.

The height was the way doctor treated this time. When my friend mentioned that filling came out just after a couple of months, doctor said they don't take guarantee of the fillings. She also said we will have to do an X-ray to see if root canal is required. My friend asked, if you did the filling, and before filling you scrape off all the infectious tooth and then fill the gap with filling so that nothing can enter the tooth, not even water or air. Then how come you are saying that root canal might be required. This comment made the doctor start condescending us. She started saying - that's not our problem and we don't care how you maintain your teeth. Your eating habits might be the cause. My friend said - I brush teeth twice a day and I don't eat stones, what eating habits are you talking about. She simply said - get the X-ray done or just leave. When we said we want to see the doctor who did this filling, she said I am in this hospital for more than a year and I never saw you. It was shocking. When my friend asked for the dental history, they said give a written application and come after a few weeks.

This pissed me off. My friend was talking so politely with the doctor and she being the doctor started speaking loudly and anything that came in her mouth. Her staff also joined and they all started targetting my friend. It was an aweful experience. I felt cheated since I had been to the hospital three times and got so many treatments done. Now, I was worried that out of 5-6 fillings I had done here how many will come out and when.

It was a serious breach of trust, but I will not allow such frauds to keep looting the society. So my next action would be to lodge a complaing may be FIR against these idiots. Whatever damage has been done to me is irrevocable, but I hope that others also don't fall in this trap.

Please evaluate their services on your own. If you are visiting them, check the quality of their record keeping, see that every month or so if you go there you will see new faces. What treatments are you been recommended by them - if you are an IT guy, your bill will be always more than a reasonable cost with unnecessary treatments. Most shocking part of it was a review I was going through, where it was mentioned that doctors in such clinics are given yearly targets to achieve a revenue which forces them to give such recommendation. Moreover they serious lack professionalism and appear more like bunch of impolite people who don't have any experience at all.

My final words for you - be careful. Dentist, barber and a spiritual guru - we should choose only once and with great caution. Stay Healthy, Stay fit!