Emily T. Cobb, PhD

Below is a copy of my response to the letter from the complainant I have removed his name.As background, his original email came while my wife and I were on vacationI was later told of its existence but didn't see an actual copy until MayIt is unfortunate that the original email was lost for a time in the shuffleMy personal apologies for being behind schedule on the day of his appointment were obviously not adequate to satisfy him.Unfortunately, not only was the patient furious on the day of his appointment because I was running behind, he voiced his fury to our receptionist to the point that our office manager felt the need to come to her rescue and try to move the discussion to a more private locationWhile the front desk cannot know all the details of why we are running behind schedule in the operatories, the staff tried to calm the patient by stating that we would see him as soon as we finished caring for the patient who was already being treatedTheir reasoning did not calm him and he resorted to abusive and bullying language as well as believing they were lying to him It was when he called later and the receptionist again felt demeaned by the patient's words that a statement about "ranting" was madeIt was my hope that he would reflect on his actions and apologize to my staff for his attitude and words and that our receptionist apologize for a less than ideal responseI obviously failed to bring this aboutIn this letter it was my hope that we could be reconciled over the issue of his having to wait minutes the day of his appointmentI did not address the portion about "ranting" in this communication with the hope that once the initial complaint was settled we might then come to an understanding about my receptionist's statement regarding what she perceived as the patient "ranting" to herIf you would like further clarification, I would be happy to do soSincerely, DrDennis SchneckerJune 9,2015Dear Dr ___________,Finally I am responding to your letterI have no good excuse for the delay, but I can be honestI hate writingI am a two finger typist and not terribly computer savvy so it is a formidable taskI find that truly understanding one another in face to face communication is often difficult, as our situation is an example, so trying to reach agreed upon understanding via email feels almost impossible to meWhile I am making confessions I must also admit that I am a procrastinatorI tend to put off things that are unpleasant or that I feel incapable of doing well (i.e., writing an English professor)My first reaction to your letter was that I couldn’t imagine what more could be saidWe had obviously failed to satisfy you when we were face to face so what more could I say? Part of my reaction was to your obvious anger with usI thought, “How could he so little appreciate how hard we have worked to meet his needs and requirements?” As I have thought about it maybe this is the problemYou really don’t have the information needed to understand the situation from an objective point of viewI will try to fill in the blanks in the hope that it may help.I guess to begin I need to give a bit of philosophical backgroundI truly believe that all people are equal in valueWe were all created in the image of God and as a result are of infinite valueI also see this world as very broken and that includes all the people in itWe all tend to be self-centered and fail to truly treat others as we would like to be treatedFrustration seems to be the curse on this worldThings break and wear outPeople get sick and suffer from agingRelationships are strained and broken because we fail to understand and love one anotherNo matter how hard we plan and work often we fail and are disappointed in ourselves and othersThis is frustration.The thing that motivates me as I attempt to serve people is that in spite of the frustration people truly are of infinite value and therefore the battle is worth itWe need to show grace to one another and ourselves and then work to do the best we can as a way of honoring people.Let me be more specific as this affects how we experience that frustration togetherI will review your experience in having your lower bridge done.First, please understand that your anxiety over needles and dental treatment is also very stressful for usWe very much want to treat you as comfortably as possibleYou probably don’t realize that we add extra time to your appointments because we know it will be neededWe have never charged you extra for that timeWe use nitrous oxide to help with your anxiety but you again have probably never been charged for itYou may however have been charged for the mask and encouraged to bring it to appointments so it can be reused.Your appointment in September for the temporary bridge preparation and extractions fortunately went well and, by the way, we did not charge you for the temporary bridgeYour return appointment to finalize the preparation of your teeth for the permanent bridge was a disappointment because you assumed that anesthesia would not be neededMost people assume anesthetic will be required for work on teethI usually tell patients when I think they won’t need anesthesia rather than when they willFor someone like you who dreads needles it almost seems like cruel and unusual punishment to remind you each time that it is comingTo me this is an example of the frustration of communicationThe reason we rescheduled you that day was that to have taken the twenty to thirty minutes for you to self medicate would have guaranteed that every patient scheduled after you would have had to wait, something that you don’t like to have happen to youFor us it meant seventy wasted minutesTo put this in perspective approximately 70% of every dollar we collect goes to pay office expensesThose expenses continued during those wasted minutesFinancially we would have been much better off to have seen you as you requested but it would have been unfair to later patientsIt is bad enough when we have to make patients wait unavoidably because of circumstances we can’t controlThe appointment when we needed so much anesthesia was terrible for all of us and we all wish it had been easierLife is frustratingI was sorry for all of us but especially for youWe did get it done but experienced one additional frustration that didn’t show itself until our attempt to seat the bridgeThough we practiced having you close in a position, when we took the final impression we failed to capture that correct bite position and I failed to realize itIs there any value in assigning blame? Again, frustration, but returning the bridge to the lab allowed us to reach our desired goalThe final appointment to seat the bridge was done as quickly as the lab could get it backThere was no real time available on our schedule so the appointment was made at the end of my morning schedule in what we call emergency time with the knowledge that we would use our lunchtime if all else failedUnfortunately over the course of the morning we fell behind and you had to waitYou felt that my staff was lying to you when they could not give you a definite answer to how long you would waitI honestly feel they were doing the best they could under the circumstances as they listened to your frustrationThere is that word again — frustrationWe all face it and to some extent we must share itMy desire and hope is that I face it with as much grace as possible.Your letter prompted me to review the actual time required to complete your caseNormally we would need four and one half hours total to complete such a caseWe spent seven and one half hours on youOf the extra time an hour and fifty minutes was directly related to your anxietyThe remaining extra seventy minutes was from failure to capture the correct biteRemembering that 70% of every dollar we collect goes to pay overhead there was no profit for me or the office in your caseTechnically it was a lossYou had no way of knowing this and frankly neither did I until I ran the numbersYou have said nothing about the final resultI think the bridge turned out quite wellYou were worth it and the frustration was also worth it to get a good, long term resultI am sorry you were and are so angry with usI really don’t know what we realistically could have done betterI would ask that you fairly and honestly consider your contribution to the difficulties we experiencedI don’t want to sound harsh or uncaring, however, I think it is unfair of you to place all the responsibility for the consequences of your anxiety upon usIf you feel the need for further clarification, please let me knowI hope this has helped.Yours respectfully,Dennis Schnecker, DMD

I have reviewed the response offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below
I want to respond to DrSchnecker as best I can First, I find it wonderfully ironic that he misplaced (elves?) my email while he was on vacation Part of my vacation was ruined by his mistakes but it was okay for him to not respond to my email for months (and he only responded then because I contacted Revdex.com) while part of the time he was on vacation What a double standard And he says my email was “lost in the shuffle.” How do you lose an email “in the shuffle”? It’s an electronic document that was addressed to him What a lame excuse And look how slyly he tries to avoid the apology for the month delay by his non sequitur of shifting his “personal apology” back to the delay in treatment not the delay in responding to my email, which was one of only two things I asked him to apologize for. Let me also make it clear that the other thing I wanted DrSchnecker to apologize was for *** accusing me of ranting when I was simply asking if DrSchnecker had gotten my email and whether he was going to respond to it What *** maintains is simply untrue and I think she is just trying to cover her rudeness. I also disagree with his presentation of what happened in his office My version is accurate even though I am not asking him to apologize for the misleading rudeness of his staff I do understand that there is an element of subjectivity here so that is why I am willing to let that go. What is more concerning to me is DrSchnecker’s Christian fanaticism I want to quote a very long passage from his second email to me, an email he conveniently did not send to you: “I may be wrong but I think ours is a conflict in worldviewsWe seem to operate from very different views of how life is to work and you find my view to be offensiveI have indicated that I have a belief in God, but in fact my basic identity is as a follower of JesusSome would use the term “Christian" but I am a bit hesitant to use that word because it means different things to many peopleFor simplicity sake though I will use the wordI am not a dentist who happens to be a ChristianRather, I am a Christian who happens to be a dentistI am a Christian dentistI am also a Christian husband, Christian father and to many a Christian friendWith all my heart I believe that God has revealed himself to mankind through what he has created and through his special revelation the BibleI believe there are absolute truths that he has establishedHe made us and loves us and, like any good parent, has defined for our own good how we should liveHe made us to reflect and appreciate who he is and his love for usThe appropriate and logical response to him should be simple obedience and loveBut we would rather be our own god and live by our own rulesOur failure to follow him perfectly is what the Bible defines as sinThis rebellion and even hatred of him and his rule puts us under his perfect and just judgementFor God to fail to punish our rebellion would be to violate his own perfection.But God loves us anyway and made a way that we can be reconciled to himHe sent his Son, Jesus, as a perfect revelation of his love and characterIt was the will of God that Jesus suffer a cruel death on a cross taking the full wrath of God’s judgement against the rebellion and sin of all menGod’s justice was satisfied in the suffering and death of Jesus as our substituteThe proof of God’s acceptance of that sacrifice is that Jesus was raised from the deadThis may sound preposterous to many worldviews but the very possibility that it may be true makes it worth thorough investigation. For me the Christian worldview explains the major questions of life Some of these questions are: Why does this universe exist and with the order that it displays? Does truth exist as a reality? Why is there so much pain and suffering and conflict in this world? Why is it that people can experience beauty? Why do we long for purpose in life? Is there true justice? Is there anything after death? Is there hope that has any reality? Is there an appropriate way to live? Is there a holy God and if so how do I avoid his judgement?For the Christian the answer to that last question is both simple and profoundA Christian is one who admits and agrees with God that he is rebellious and broken and deserves just punishment A Christian is one whose desire is to know, obey and love God but who knows that there is nothing he can do to make himself acceptable to GodA Christian is one who accepts that his only true hope is to trust in the death and resurrection of Jesus as one who took his just punishment as his substituteJesus died to honor his Father and to make a way that God could and would accept us as his childrenFor me this is a wondrous truth and the basis for who I am and hope to beI may grieve for you that you don’t agree with a christian worldview and I do feel rather vulnerable in sharing my heart with you but in no way do I value you less for your belief system, but I would hope that you might see that I value you more than you realized.Having said all the above, the result is that when you seem to require that I exclude “religion" from dentistry I find myself unable to be meI may wish we shared worldviews and can understand that you disagree, but I am at a loss as to how to respond to your seeming hostility.” This is an utterly inappropriate response to a patient who is disagreeing about professional dental services It is condescending and insulting and I wonder if his partners know he sent this to me Does DrSchnecker think he is a preacher or a priest? Does he want to start performing confirmations or exorcisms in his office? This is nutty I would agree that we have differing worldviews but that is so irrelevant to dental care that only a true fanatic would bring the two together I think DrSchnecker owes me a profound apology for his misguided words. Let me also address his comments about my fear of needles First I have been a patient of DrSchnecker’s for close to years and this is the first time he has complained about my fear of needles If I was such a problem, why didn’t he address the issue years ago, instead of accepting thousands of dollars from me and many thousands from my insurance. In addition, eight years ago I had colon cancer and had a colon resection and months of chemotherapy, horrible months of nausea and vomiting and having a needle stuck in my arm for or hours per week (DrSchnecker knew of this because he had to treat me differently during chemo) His unexpected comments (again, he never brought this up in close to years) made me relive those awful months I hope he and his God are happy for the pain they have brought me. Sincerely,Dr*** ***Professor of English*** University

Below is a copy of my response to the letter from the complainant.  I have removed his name.As background, his original email came while my wife and I were on vacation. I was later told of its existence but didn't see an actual copy until May. It is unfortunate that the original...

email was lost for a time in the shuffle. My personal apologies for being behind schedule on the day of his appointment were obviously not adequate to satisfy him.Unfortunately, not only was the patient furious on the day of his appointment because I was running behind, he voiced his fury to our receptionist to the point that our office manager felt the need to come to her rescue and try to move the discussion to a more private location. While the front desk cannot know all the details of why we are running behind schedule in the operatories, the staff tried to calm the patient by stating that we would see him as soon as we finished caring for the patient who was already being treated. Their reasoning did not calm him and he resorted to abusive and bullying language as well as believing they were lying to him.  It was when he called later and the receptionist again felt demeaned by the patient's words that a statement about "ranting" was made. It was my hope that he would reflect on his actions and apologize to my staff for his attitude and words and that our receptionist apologize for a less than ideal response. I obviously failed to bring this about. In this letter it was my hope that we could be reconciled over the issue of his having to wait 45 minutes the day of his appointment. I did not address the portion about "ranting" in this communication with the hope that once the initial complaint was settled we might then come to an understanding about my receptionist's statement regarding what she perceived as the patient "ranting" to her. If you would like further clarification, I would be happy to do so. Sincerely, Dr. Dennis SchneckerJune 9,2015Dear Dr ___________,Finally I am responding to your letter. I have no good excuse for the delay, but I can be honest. I hate writing. I am a two finger typist and not terribly computer savvy so it is a formidable task. I find that truly understanding one another in face to face communication is often difficult, as our situation is an example, so trying to reach agreed upon understanding via email feels almost impossible to me. While I am making confessions I must also admit that I am a procrastinator. I tend to put off things that are unpleasant or that I feel incapable of doing well (i.e., writing an English professor). My first reaction to your letter was that I couldn’t imagine what more could be said. We had obviously failed to satisfy you when we were face to face so what more could I say? Part of my reaction was to your obvious anger with us. I thought, “How could he so little appreciate how hard we have worked to meet his needs and requirements?” As I have thought about it maybe this is the problem. You really don’t have the information needed to understand the situation from an objective point of view. I will try to fill in the blanks in the hope that it may help.I guess to begin I need to give a bit of philosophical background. I truly believe that all people are equal in value. We were all created in the image of God and as a result are of infinite value. I also see this world as very broken and that includes all the people in it. We all tend to be self-centered and fail to truly treat others as we would like to be treated. Frustration seems to be the curse on this world. Things break and wear out. People get sick and suffer from aging. Relationships are strained and broken because we fail to understand and love one another. No matter how hard we plan and work often we fail and are disappointed in ourselves and others. This is frustration.The thing that motivates me as I attempt to serve people is that in spite of the frustration people truly are of infinite value and therefore the battle is worth it. We need to show grace to one another and ourselves and then work to do the best we can as a way of honoring people.Let me be more specific as this affects how we experience that frustration together. I will review your experience in having your lower bridge done.First, please understand that your anxiety over needles and dental treatment is also very stressful for us. We very much want to treat you as comfortably as possible. You probably don’t realize that we add extra time to your appointments because we know it will be needed. We have never charged you extra for that time. We use nitrous oxide to help with your anxiety but you again have probably never been charged for it. You may however have been charged for the mask and encouraged to bring it to appointments so it can be reused.Your appointment in September for the temporary bridge preparation and extractions fortunately went well and, by the way, we did not charge you for the temporary bridge. Your return appointment to finalize the preparation of your teeth for the permanent bridge was a disappointment because you assumed that anesthesia would not be needed. Most people assume anesthetic will be required for work on teeth. I usually tell patients when I think they won’t need anesthesia rather than when they will. For someone like you who dreads needles it almost seems like cruel and unusual punishment to remind you each time that it is coming. To me this is an example of the frustration of communication. The reason we rescheduled you that day was that to have taken the twenty to thirty minutes for you to self medicate would have guaranteed that every patient scheduled after you would have had to wait, something that you don’t like to have happen to you. For us it meant seventy wasted minutes. To put this in perspective approximately 70% of every dollar we collect goes to pay office expenses. Those expenses continued during those wasted minutes. Financially we would have been much better off to have seen you as you requested but it would have been unfair to later patients. It is bad enough when we have to make patients wait unavoidably because of circumstances we can’t control. The appointment when we needed so much anesthesia was terrible for all of us and we all wish it had been easier. Life is frustrating. I was sorry for all of us but especially for you. We did get it done but experienced one additional frustration that didn’t show itself until our attempt to seat the bridge. Though we practiced having you close in a normal position, when we  took the final impression we failed to capture that correct bite position and I failed to realize it. Is there any value in assigning blame? Again, frustration, but returning the bridge to the lab allowed us to reach our desired goal. The final appointment to seat the bridge was done as quickly as the lab could get it back. There was no real time available on our schedule so the appointment was made at the end of my morning schedule in what we call emergency time with the knowledge that we would use our lunchtime if all else failed. Unfortunately over the course of the morning we fell behind and you had to wait. You felt that my staff was lying to you when they could not give you a definite answer to how long you would wait. I honestly feel they were doing the best they could under the circumstances as they listened to your frustration. There is that word again — frustration. We all face it and to some extent we must share it. My desire and hope is that I face it with as much grace as possible.Your letter prompted me to review the actual time required to complete your case. Normally we would need four and one half hours total to complete such a case. We spent seven and one half hours on you. Of the extra time an hour and fifty minutes was directly related to your anxiety. The remaining extra seventy minutes was from failure to capture the correct bite. Remembering that 70% of every dollar we collect goes to pay overhead there was no profit for me or the office in your case. Technically it was a loss. You had no way of knowing this and frankly neither did I until I ran the numbers. You have said nothing about the final result. I think the bridge turned out quite well. You were worth it and the frustration was also worth it to get a good, long term result. I am sorry you were and are so angry with us. I really don’t know what we realistically could have done better. I would ask that you fairly and honestly consider your contribution to the difficulties we experienced. I don’t want to sound harsh or uncaring, however, I think it is unfair of you to place all the responsibility for the consequences of your anxiety upon us. If you feel the need for further clarification, please let me know. I hope this has helped.Yours respectfully,Dennis Schnecker, DMD