Compromise Never Works

Today I had the experience of interviewing a patient that just had a partial reconstruction done just three weeks ago. Now, I am not commenting on what the previous dentist did because he really had no choice, or at least not a good choice. His treatment decision was based upon the patient's pocketbook which always leads to some kind of compromise. In this case the compromise was huge.

The patient presented with what we tend to think of as a "roller coaster" type occlusal plane. Instead of restoring both the upper and lower jaw to correct this issue, this dentist conceded and restored only one jaw to fit the other resulting in basically a total mess. The patient now needs to have the entire reconstruction redone at an even greater cost or else live with the compromise.

This problem is not unusual. Dentists are often faced with this situation and have to try to work around a myriad of problems. Patients, unfortunately, do not very often understand these complexities and think that they will be just fine. Very often this is not the case and the patient finds out too late. I would suggest that in the future both dentist and patient fully discuss not only the treatment options but are realistic when discussing major compromise. In dentistry like parachute manufacturing compromise just never works.