I had a great experience when having Dr. Edwards as a dentist, I have been taking my family there for almost 20 years.
I was very disappointed at my last visit in November 2022, when Dr. Wilde dropped a dental wedge in my throat and didn't tell me. At the end of the visit when he and his assistance were raising the chair upright, I started coughing and gagging and could feel an object in my throat, and told both of them. Both acted nonchalant. His assistance followed me out to the front desk and wouldn't leave my side, which at first I thought she was being extra attentive. Dr. Wilde came out to the front desk too and stared at me and told me to have a good night.
In hindsight I realize they were both checking my vitals to see if they would come clean about their negligence.
Once the freezing wore off the next day, I soon realized there was something stuck in my throat. I contacted the office and they were unconcerned, and told me they didn't know what they could do for me. No follow up calls from any of the dentists.
3 days later I admitted myself to urgent care and the doctor ordered an x-ray, as we didn't know if it was plastic or metal. 2 CT scans, 2 ultrasound, an MRI, another x-ray, and endoscopy and laryngoscopy, I discovered this object is undetectable due to its size, composition and density and the fact it doesn't have metallic properties. I am 8 months now with this dental wedge still lost in my throat.
The scariest part was when I was shown a dental spacer (wedge), I could not believe that they would try cover up such a dangerous mistake. The object is hard, sharp and poky.
It's extremely disappointing since if they dentist would had followed the proper protocol of 1) telling me he lost the object, 2) trying to remove the object, and if unsuccessful, 3) sending me to the ER, this could had been resolved months ago.
I have been told by the medical community that he shouldn't have been using this object since it's undetectable as well, he didn't have it tied up incase he did drop it.
His negligence has disrupted my livelihood and destroyed my quality of life. And it's been a living nightmare since then.
The really scary part was that the only reason I knew what happened was I heard him ask his assistant for another dental spacer, and she said, but I just gave you one, and he said, I know, I lost it....
I told the office I was at the ER trying to locate and remove the dental wedge, and all they were concerned with was requesting medical reports, (I am assuming so they could determine whether or not to admit to it.
I've received no follow up from any of the dentists as to concern for everything I've gone through. It was extremely disappointing because I already had a fear of dentists, and actually minus Dr. Wilde losing the object in my throat, he had such an amazing bedside manner, and I really trusted him.
I've obviously reported this to the College of Dental Surgeons of Alberta, and have requested that their office implement a procedure for if this happens again, rather than just hide it and hope I don't get evidence. Additionally I've requested that they quit using these types of dental wedges, since they are impossible to locate on any current imaging technology. As well I asked that they use one with a metallic strip to make them identifiable and have a string tied to it incase they drop them in a patients mouth again.
The sad part is the object is engineered to be tied off, they just chose not to. read more
