Christopher Vairin DDS

This review is for services I received by Dr. Vairin in in 2005. I found Dr. Vairin through my dental network and was seeing him to have all of my mercury amalgam fillings replaced with composite resin. During an appointment to remove the amalgam fillings in three adjacent molars, Dr. Vairin informed me that ALL THREE teeth would need root canals. I immediately felt like something was off because I was not having any symptoms whatsoever in those teeth. I was simply voluntarily removing and replacing the amalgam fillings with resin because I didn't want the mercury in my mouth. Dr. Vairin proceeded to do a pulpectomy on all three teeth, which, unbeknownst to me at the time, meant I would HAVE NO CHOICE but to get root canals. He was immediately insistent that I should go to his preferred endodontist. His endodontist was not in my insurance network, so I told him I'd find my own, which he was not thrilled about. When I went to the endodontist, he was rather surprised that I needed three root canals, given my age (25 at the time). He asked me what symptoms I was having, and I told him none whatsoever, that I was simply having the amalgam fillings replaced with resin. This is when I found out that I had no choice but to have root canals since a pulpectomy had already been performed. I paid over $2,000 out of pocket for the root canals. Next up, the crowns at $1K+ a pop. When it came to the crowns, I don't know why on Earth I didn't go to another dentist. I think I was still trying to give Dr. V the benefit of the doubt. Bad idea. When it came to placing the crowns, he really struggled. He had to redo one of them, and I spent a LOT more time in the chair than I should have for crown placements (by his own admission, and to his credit, he was apologetic about it). I finally wised up and stopped seeing him, but the problems didn't end there. Within three years, I had to have two of his poorly-fitted crowns replaced, flushing thousands more down the drain. Today, I'm having issues with one of the root canals and the tooth will likely need to be extracted and replaced with an implant. In the end, this whole ordeal will have cost me over $10K. Not to mention, the extreme frustration that this situation has caused me ongoing and very expensive problems for over 10 years, and the feeling that it's very possible that I was subjected to unnecessary root canal procedures. I want to be clear that I obviously cannot know this for certain, but it is my belief that Dr. Vairin was an opportunist in my situation, or at least extremely aggressive. Based on my age, overall dental health, and the lack of symptoms, I don't believe that I needed root canals on all three of those teeth. I'm not even sure if I needed one, but I will never know because I was deprived of the opportunity to get a second opinion on less aggressive measures, or at least a confirmation from the endodontist that I really did need root canals. I can also tell you that Dr. V constantly tried to push extravagant dental treatments on me, like laser gum elevation, and an expensive TMJ device -- neither of which I've ever been told that I need by any other dentist in my 30+ years of seeing dentists. My feelings are consistent with other reviews I've read about him. I would not recommend Dr. Vairin.