I went to a local cosmetic dentist recently, and was seeking DaVinci veneers. After my initial consultation, he set up my appointment for a Friday. When I went in that day, he and his wife (his assistant) were there to work on me. The only problem was, the office was closed that day. So us three were the only ones there. He made a comment to me about jerking off in my mouth. He proceeded , over the next few months to tell me that he and his wife were swingers, and they wanted me to sleep with them. He told me that I was hot, etc... and he even told me different locations that he and his wife had sex in the office. I am not going to go into complete detail in this post, but there were numerous comments made. These comments were made in March-July of 2005. I have considered sueing him, but am unsure whether I have a case, seeing as how it is my word against his.

I went to a local cosmetic dentist recently, and was seeking DaVinci veneers. After my initial consultation, he set up my appointment for a Friday. When I went in that day, he and his wife (his assistant) were there to work on me. The only problem was, the office was closed that day. So us three were the only ones there. He made a comment to me about jerking off in my mouth. He proceeded , over the next few months to tell me that he and his wife were swingers, and they wanted me to sleep with them. He told me that I was hot, etc....and he even told me different locations that he and his wife had sex in the office. I am not going to go into complete detail in this post, but there were numerous comments made. These comments were made in March-July of 2005. I have considered sueing him, but am unsure whether or not I have a case, seeing as how it is my word against his.
Wow, I would hope that you had a case, that is a horrible thing that happened to you, and I wish you the best of luck with it.
You should contact an attorney who specializes in Doctors/ Malpractice.

Hello teach:

Did you continue to see him after he first exhibited this behavior? It looks like you did. IF it does wind up being your word against his, people are going to wonder why you stayed and why you didn't complain years ago. Some of those people will probably be on your jury. If you want to win, you're going to have to come up with a good answer.

excon

I had the same reaction excon did. First, you have no proof of what they said to you. And second, the fact that you continued to see them for months while they continued this behavior is going to get you torn apart on the stand:

Attorney: So you objected to what my client allegedly said to you:
You: Yes
Atty: Did you tell him you felt uncomfortable?
You: No
Atty: Did you stop coming back?
You: No
Atty: Why did you wait 2 years to file a claim?
You: Well I wasn't sure I had a case.
Atty: You were right, you didn't and don't!

Fair enough. The reason that I continued to see him is this: I wanted my teeth fixed more than anything. I was unable to qualify for a loan to pay for the treatment- and this dentist offered to let me pay him monthly payments on a personal basis. No one else was willing to work with me like that.

Hello again, teach:

Well, of course, ScottGem is a computer dude and I'm, well, I'm not. In any case, we could be wrong. Spend a half day on the phone calling attorney's. Who knows what you might find out?

excon

Yes, of course the dentist does not know that you did not record him, and could be bluffed into a settlement. ( or go back to have them checked and record him for real this time)

But of course on most sexual harassment cases, the main point will be at what point you told them not to say or do anything like that again,
You may try to show that you felt unable to, because of his Power of you, not able to go to other dentist and the such.

Not like a chiropactor friend of mine, who lost his license because he had all the women disrobe before doing their adjustments.

Fair enough. The reason that I continued to see him is this: I wanted my teeth fixed more than anything. I was unable to qualify for a loan to pay for the treatment- and this dentist offered to let me pay him monthly payments on a personal basis. No one else was willing to work with me like that.

I figured the reason was something like that, but its immaterial. A jury is going to think that the harassment could not have been so terrible if it existed at all, since you continued to go.

By all means consult attys, but I would doubt if anyone would take it. At the most, they might try dashing off a few letters in hopes of intimidating the doc for a settlement. But I can't see any lawyer taking this into a court room.

Scott,
Of course, this is not what I wanted to hear, but to receive an honest opinion is always helpful.. . Perhaps you are right, a jury might question why I continued to go back. They might not understand my reasons. . However, no one expects to go to the dentist and have him comment about jerking off in your mouth... ugh

Scott,
Of course, this is not what I wanted to hear, but to receive an honest opinion is always helpful. ..... Perhaps you are right, a jury might question why I continued to go back. They might not understand my reasons. . However, no one expects to go to the dentist and have him comment about jerking off in your mouth..... ugh


That's quite true. The problem is that if a dentist said that to me, unless we were in the middle of a procedure, I would have been out of the chair, demanding an apology, and either reporting it to the owner of the center or the state board. Possibly the police, but I am not sure if I would go that far right off the bat. If it were in the middle of the procedure, I would have been doing that at the end after my mouth stopped being numb. You, on the other hand, went back. Multiple times. So the very real question that they jury has to consider is how bad did you consider it to be, based on your actions.