Don't let your dentist dance to "Car Wash" during office hours

A dentist dancing to the song "Car Wash" while he was extracting a patient's tooth lost the inch-long drill bit, which punctured her sinus cavity and came to rest by her eye socket. Since the October 2004 surgery, Brandy Fanning has suffered facial swelling, nerve damage and has chronic infections because of the bacteria that seeped into the cavity. (Syracuse Post-Standard)

Comments

[yucca]

This story hurts just reading it. THe dentist should get back to the Muzak program feed.

[Soo]

I'm thinking someone's too big a fan of those TV medical dramas where all the doctors are amazing and can dance/sing their way through the trickiest of surgeries.

And what about that last name, 'Trusty'? Talk about some irony.

[Bonzo]

First thing to check when you go to the dentist, has he been doing his own nitrous?

[dbigg]

This one calls for a couple of Bong hits I believe. Going to the dentist is bad enough w/o visions of dancing and misplaced tools dancing in your head!!

[dbigg]

OOOPPPSSS no pun intended. Kind of funny though if I do say so myself

[Chantilly Rose]

Yeah, real funny dbigg! ^_^ Though I agree with Bonzo, and think that someone has had one too many whiffs of the nitrous.

I'd worry more if my dentist was dancing to "Maxwell's Silver Hammer."

[freckles]

The only song I ever hear at my dentist's is "Unbreak My Heart" by Toni Braxton.

If anything, my dentist is at serious risk of falling asleep.

[Charles Brobst]

He ought to be a dentist...
He has a talent:
FOR CAUSING PEOPLE
PAIN!!!
Just recommending a new song for this guy.

"Dr. Ruben Cowart, president and chief executive officer of the health center, declined to speak about the incident, saying, “That would open the door to other cases and other patients and it’s just not something we can get into.”

If that doesn't speak volumes, I don't know what does.

"He didn’t pay them and still hasn’t returned her calls, she said."

And she had better not be surprised.

"The case is in federal court because the health center is a private, non-profit corporation protected by the federally supported Health Center Act of 1992. That limits the amount of damages for which it can settle."

Isn't nice the federal government looks out for quacks? I can't tell you how much that makes me proud to be an American. Really, I can't.

[andie]

God, I really feel for this woman. I have a pretty serious dental phobia ever since I was a kid and my dentist accidentally hit a nerve with a shot of novocaine. The whole side of my face jumped. Being only 9 or so the next time I requested that I get no shot. Brilliant dentist agreed. The most pain I've been in in my life. I also had a dentist who trapped my in my chair going on about how OJ Simpson was innocent. And he went on and on and got kind of hostile even though I didn't say anything except "mmm." I couldn't say anything with his hands in my mouth. Gave me the big ol' creeps.

I hope this woman gets adequate compensation for her pain as well as punitive damages from the jackass who thought that dancing during dental surgery is OK.

[Rusty Shackelford]

Seeing a dentist is bad enough but to be lying there and have "Workin' in a Coal Mine" come through on the MUZAK doesn't help!

Happened to me a while back.

[bitsy]

I generally think the amounts in lawsuits have gotten insane, I mean really, I know smoking was not the healthiest thing I could do, I always knew smoking was bad for me, but I chose to smoke and now I have cancer and I need $100 mill? I don't think so. However, I do not think $600,000 is enough compensation for this lady. A huge chunk of that is going to go to a lawyer and the rest of it is going to go to medical bills. She should get to enjoy something out of it. I mean the lady had pus coming out her nose for months! Blech!

[Yall]

It's all a racket! Lawyers need paid by what the client thinks they are worth, not what the lawyers think they are worth! Eye for an eye the way I see it! If they hurt me I ought to be able to hurt them. How many folks in other real professions get away with charging outrageous fees for "practicing" that profession? Want a roofer to practice on your house? What about the block mason? If they accidentally screw up (the honest ones) they have to pay out the nose for years!

[pnwgal]

This just re-cements my deep loathing and hatred for the dental industry.

Evil denizens of oral pain and suffering!

[jimmyjohn]

What the??????!!!!???? Funny, this story never made headlines here in Syracuse. This idiot is still in business, listed in the Syracuse phone book, which means there are a bunch of people unknowingly letting this moron work on them. This is the kind of nightmare story that keeps people out of the dentist's office......$600,000? Boy, you can tell Syracuse is a depressed city because the lawsuit should rightfully be for 10 times that. Heck, people around here go to scumbag ambulance chasing lawyers after a minor fender bender seeking more money than that! Not only has this woman gone through a lot of pain, but I would think she would be emotionally scarred for life. I would never go to a dentist again! I try to stay away from my Irish dentist near St. Patricks Day since he is usually dancing a jig....and there was that surgeon who amazingly removed my spleen while vogueing to a Madonna song.

[jimmyjohn]

What the??????!!!!???? Funny, this story never made headlines here in Syracuse. This idiot is still in business, listed in the Syracuse phone book, which means there are a bunch of people unknowingly letting this moron work on them. This is the kind of nightmare story that keeps people out of the dentist's office......$600,000? Boy, you can tell Syracuse is a depressed city because the lawsuit should rightfully be for 10 times that. Heck, people around here go to scumbag ambulance chasing lawyers after a minor fender bender seeking more money than that! Not only has this woman gone through a lot of pain, but I would think she would be emotionally scarred for life. I would never go to a dentist again! I try to stay away from my Irish dentist near St. Patricks Day since he is usually dancing a jig....and there was that surgeon who amazingly removed my spleen while vogueing to a Madonna song....stich stich...strike a pose....stitch....

[Naga Please!]

I, for one, love going to the dentist. The feeling of clean teeth is just great. Nothing wrong with having a dentist with a little soul in him is there?

[Rusty Shackelford]

when he's dancin' round you with sharp implements? Or so busy talking about a bloody football game than attending to a root canal and the patient winds up with an infection?

I only go when I need a tooth pulled and even then I'm NOT happy!