Should I sue my dentist for malpractice?

[boyce]

When I was fourteen ( five years ago ) I started going to a dentist who claimed he could do orthodontics as well. My family took him up on this offer, and that's when everything went downhill.

I was a guinea pig for the newer type of braces which seem to work much more effectively. My teeth were REALLY bad pre-braces, and they moved to a more natural position in a matter of months. Unfortunately, they moved my bottom row of teeth so fast that my gums detached from the teeth. There were many signs of this, and at this point I was seeing him every three weeks. It wasn't until months later that he mentioned it and said my only option was to get gum grafting surgery. He then blamed me for bad hygiene, and referred me to a surgeon who would end up doing the entire procedure without anesthetic ( which is an entirely different story on its own ).
Two months before the procedure he took the wires out of my mouth so that only the brackets remained. Why he did this I'm still not sure. My teeth, of course, moved back to normal by the time I had to go in for surgery, not only delaying my estimated braces period by a year or two but also making the situation with my gums a whole lot worse. Two years later, he would mention that the surgery ( that we had to pay 1200 dollars for ) was not even all that important.

He would also seem to mess up very often. Almost every appointment I had with him needed a follow-up appointment shortly after because of something directly related to him, like a bracket glued on at the wrong angle or not glued on strong enough, or forgotten pieces, etcetera.

About a year ago I went in for a normal check-up and one of his assistants was working with me. He stopped by, listed off a few teeth and walked away in silence. Ten minutes pass, and I ask the assistant what that was about. "Those are teeth that have more of a chance of tooth decay in the future." Oh, sweet, thanks for the update.

My favourite, however, was when we were talking about getting four of my front teeth extracted. My teeth flared out and getting some taken out would help to keep them vertical, which makes sense ( and worked wonderfully ) but during our conversations about it he would always compare my face to a horse. This was not one time. This was several times over the course of several months.

One last one, and this is more recent. I went for a "retainer check" this last December ( my braces were only just taken off the September before ) and once I arrived they started talking about getting a cleaning along with it. I had heard nothing about a cleaning from the time I scheduled the appointment to the time I got there, and having just turned 19 I was no longer on my parents' dental plan. They knew this. After much arguing, the assistant who would be doing the cleaning checked on the plan I had been on and said I still had enough credits for a cleaning, and that even if they didn't go through, it was their "Christmas present". I trusted them because I was stupid. A few weeks later, I get a 200 dollar bill in the mail for that cleaning.

So as you can see this guy is not the best dentist out there, nor are his staff. But is any of this grounds for a lawsuit?? I do still have tooth problems because of this guy ( most notably the lack of information on my tooth decay ) and I don't want him messing up anybody else's life. Especially not any other teenagers!