BAD TEETH BAD FOR BUSINESS

So almost everyone can say that they have been to the dentist at least once in their lifetime. How many people can say that they have been sued by their dentist because of making a negative comment about them? Probably not too many. Well a recent article surfaced where a dentist is suing a patient of hers for writing a negative review about her and her office. . Apparently the patient had some trouble with some paperwork from the dentist’s office and got frustrated causing him to write a negative review about the dentist on Yelp and DoctorBase.  Well the dentist claims that the patient signed a paper “Mutual Agreement to Maintain Privacy”. The patient agrees to sign many papers while he was already under the influence of the numbing agent being used for the procedure. The dentist wrote a letter to the patient as well as the websites asking them to take the negative post against her and her practice. The websites as well as the patient did not remove the article.  I am guessing that this agreement is what lead the dentist to want to sue. The article got me thinking about a lot of things. First, whenever I am looking to try a new service or product the first thing I always do is read reviews. Reviews help out with so many good decisions.  Getting sued for writing a review seems scary and not right. Everyone should be entitled to their opinion.

The lawyer of the patient is defending the fact that his client had every right to say what he did and that doctors and dentist are expected to act in an ethical manner. The dentist is suing on the basis that the patient breached the contract that was signed. I guess it’s hard to take sides in this case because we don’t really know what the agreement said. Also its disturbing that an agreement such as the one mentioned above is even included in paperwork at a dentist office. Why is it so important to maintain privacy? It makes you wonder if the dentist has something to hide. Is that even a routine form to sign? Maybe it is but I definitely haven’t noticed it whenever I have been to the dentist.  One of the comments that were posted was “if someone has to swear themselves to secrecy before having dental work done, then it’s a sign to turn and run”. This person has a very good point. Maybe this dentist has something to hide. What I found funny about this story too, is that the dentist suing the patient made bad publicity for herself with the lawsuit. Maybe she should have thought twice about suing her patient.