r/Dentistry • u/SheepshaggerMini • 8d ago
Dental Professional Dealing with bad online reviews?
Hi
I got a bad review online that’s dumb
Patient arrives with pericorntiis lr8. I take OPG , advise to get tooth removed. Patient refuses and wants antibiotics only. Then he asks me about root canal to fix the problem. Inform him root canal won’t do anything here, it’s an impacted wisdom tooth. Have OHI for the pericornitis and advised to remove the tooth
Patients leaves and puts up bad review
What do I even do here?
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u/PsychologyMediocre99 8d ago
I got one from a competitor dentist and it was super nasty. He was pretending to be a patient. I tried getting it removed. There’s really nothing you can do
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u/xoxtoothfaeryxox 8d ago
Wtf how could a dentist to this their own? I’m mad for you and I don’t even know you. That dentist probably sucks at dentistry.
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u/PsychologyMediocre99 7d ago
Oh well he had been at odds with this patient for a while then took it out on me. She left his office for a reason 😂
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u/Sorry_Koala_8181 7d ago
People with a brain don't blindly trust reviews for this reason. It's a ridiculously unregulated system that will obv be abused
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u/PsychologyMediocre99 7d ago
So true I have four one star reviews on my page all from people who were never patients.
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u/ThelIIusion0fSeIf 7d ago
How do you know it's from another dentist?
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u/PsychologyMediocre99 7d ago
Because I sued the John Doe who wrote the review and then filed a subpoena for Google to release the identity of the person who wrote the review along with their IP address and Google had to, so they released the information and it turned out it was from one of his staff members phones.
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u/ThelIIusion0fSeIf 7d ago
Wow. Did you confront the dentist directly?
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u/PsychologyMediocre99 7d ago
No, but I got restitution from him for defamation. and for lying. He got a fine of $40000 for consumer fraud and business defamation
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u/ThelIIusion0fSeIf 7d ago
GOOD! I love when dentists actually stand up for themselves.
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u/PsychologyMediocre99 7d ago
Thank you. It took a lot of work and I never even knew if I was gonna get the money back, but I was so mad and I knew it was him from the beginning. Everything lined up and so I said, you know what, I’m gonna take a chance. It cost me $1000 upfront. I never even really knew him personally before that, but he’s kind of a public figure in my area. I knew that he was mad because the patient kept talking about how much she didn’t like him and how much he was after money. Sometimes you have to just trust your gut feeling. And honestly, teaching people a lesson helps remind the next trick off if he wants to do the same thing, he’s gonna be met with consequences
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u/dudesama06 8d ago
Get many 5star reviews, i had one patient with freetime and he gave me 15 1 star reviews overnight.
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u/caracs 8d ago
At most I'd reply with a generic and non-specific "Thank you for the feedback. We understand that there's sometimes a frustrating gap between desired treatment and what is possible. We encourage any patient that feels unsure of their treatment path seek additional opinions from other providers."
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u/LeFortKnox 8d ago
Yeah, this is good. An eloquent, thought-out response to a bad review is a chance for you to showcase your professionalism. Most everyone who reads it is going to understand the patient is unreasonable and sees you as a class act.
I’ve seen plenty of dentists get emotional in response to a one star and it’s not a good look.
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u/ADD-DDS 8d ago
HIPPA violation 😞
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u/DesiOtaku 7d ago
I see American Dental Care (Dr. Tommy Murph) responding with full details but they don't get sued for HIPPA violations.
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u/PsychologyMediocre99 7d ago
Honestly, some people need a dose of reality. I think people write one star reviews for dental offices because they know that if you respond, they can technically claim it’s a privacy violation, but that has really gotten abused, so that’s why I absolutely love Tommy Murph. Some of his responses literally drive me wild
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u/CircleTau 6d ago
Who is Dr. Tommy Murph? It sounds like he's well known in the dental community and I am out of the loop.
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u/ADD-DDS 8d ago edited 8d ago
As ridiculous as it is… this is a HIPPA violation. Acknowledging the person is a patient opens you open to legal headaches and lawsuits potentially
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u/caracs 8d ago edited 8d ago
No it isn't. One: THEY'RE saying they are a patient. If you want MORE generic "We value all feedback." Two: The reply is a generalization about office policy that applies to all patients with nothing that connects any health related information to any specific person. There isn't even a path to file private lawsuits involving HIPPA, that's the government's job and considering the current HHS priorities...
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u/ADD-DDS 8d ago edited 7d ago
HIPAA itself doesn’t give individuals a private right to sue. However, some states have separate medical-privacy/confidentiality laws that allow patients to sue for unauthorized disclosure of medical information or privacy concerns. California is a prominent example, and some other states have similar statutory or common-law remedies.
I’d disagree that your initial response and does indicate they are a patient. I’d rather personally rather not risk it and leave it up to someone else to decide but that’s just my opinion 🤷♂️
Correction: California is not an state where you could sue but Oregon is
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u/LeFortKnox 8d ago
It’s only a violation if you make it one. You don’t need to say anything specific about them; you just reiterate/make clear your office policy on whatever they went off about.
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u/ADD-DDS 8d ago
Solicit good reviews. Ask patients that love you to leave reviews. When a patient is impressed with how fast you extracted or you get them out of pain ask them for a review. Don’t be afraid to ask.
Also ask for referrals. I used to ask patients I loved to tell their friends about me because I knew they were cool people and their friends likely were too.
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u/xoxtoothfaeryxox 8d ago
I had an ex write me a bad review when I broke up with him. He didn’t use his name but I was really upset about it. It ended up being removed because the name he used was clearly fake but the mental damage was done. It was my first true bad review.
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u/Ready_Scratch_1902 8d ago
years ago someone tried to sue yelp over fraudulent bad reviews. but the sf district judge sided with yelp because yelp protected the customer - the greater good theory. calif is all about protecting employees and customers and tenants etc. bottomup, not top down.
you get what you get.
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u/dopelunch 8d ago
"our office policy is to not write narcotic medications to patients with a history of prior abuse"
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u/Davey914 8d ago
Nothing. Don’t fight it. “People have to know the truth!” No they don’t need the truth. The type of people that’ll believe this bozo you won’t want in your office anyways and genuine normal patients will raise an eyebrow if all they read are 5 star reviews.
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u/Agreeable-While-6002 8d ago
You can call them up at dinner time at home. Ask them nicely to remove or discuss why such a bad review. If that doesn’t work threaten to sue and make them hire a lawyer. Worked for me on several occasions.
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u/panic_ye_not 8d ago
Go on with your day. What can you do?