Dentaltown February 2022 - 26

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Aggressive Reactions to
Nasty Social Media Posts
This pediatric dentist wonders how to respond to a parent who leaves disparaging reviews that go " viral "
griff45
Member Since: 05/11/04
Post: 1 of 64
I know this is more of a PR/marketing or a rant-and-rave type of post, but because I'm a
pediatric dentist and had a bad social media experience, I'm going to post here.
Two years ago this week, I was having a great week in one of the best years I've ever had, and
did an exam on a 5.5-year-old who was extremely active in my chair for a recall exam. It was the
third appointment, and the fi rst we'd been able to get a full cleaning in and a reasonable exam
performed. Previous exams were knee-to-knee by my associate, who'd departed midyear.
The patient's legs were off the chair, head up, arms off, and he grabbed the mirror and/or
explorer four or fi ve times. There's no diagnosis in the chart, but I'm suspecting moderate/severe
ADHD. Autism spectrum was also a thought, but he was fairly articulate and age-appropriate
in his interactions, etc. Got the exam done, but with 10-12 sit-ups during. Pretty happy that we
fi nally got an exam in; we head out to the toy machine.
Recall appointment was six months later. Mom is evasive and looks perturbed. Mentions to
my front desk staff that there had been a discussion of autism a few years back. I fl ip the health
history around, and there's no mention of any behavioral diagnoses, not even provisionally. We
have a tense two-minute conversation of completing medical histories to include any and all things
that might be pertinent to our providing care. She reappoints him for six months and heads out.
Next evening, I'm getting multiple texts from my staff. The mother has absolutely toasted
me on her private FB page, rife with incredible statements like, " Who would treat my autistic
son like that? " Knowing the mother is a nut, I disregard and choose to ignore the post. (This is
Saturday evening.) By Monday morning, the post has gone viral: a few hundred nasty comments
that, as we researched over the next week, were mostly from ex-Medicaid patients who'd been
dismissed. I still want to disregard, but it's becoming an odd phenomenon. Viral, angry and
now out of control.
I confer with my (very passive) attorney, who says, " This is just small-town gossip " and, " It'll
go away soon. " Well, it doesn't go away and someone on the post initiates a suggestion to involve
the news media.
The rest is my unfortunate history with an investigative report by the CBS affi liate out of
Columbus. I could go on, but I'll stop there, because the rest is the emotional and bombastic
fallout of being described as a threat to my kids. Regardless, there's been good that's come out of
this and I think in a few years my offi ce will recover better and stronger.
I've had the chance, through chat groups and informally with colleagues, to discuss our " cancel
culture " and how dentists are relatively easy targets for angry, often very one-sided rants by patients
(or for pediatric dentists, our patients' families). I've addressed " bad " reviews in many ways, the
most common being a polite, contrite phone call to the family (depending on the complaint).
In another incident, the mother of a 2-year old with severe BBTD and two or three abscessed
teeth accused me online of being a " greedy SOB " who wanted to put her kid out to do his work.
I called her voicemail and left an angry message, asking her to pull that unbelievably inaccurate
post for three or four reasons, not limited to defamation and slanderous accusations of fraud and
malpractice. The review was deleted less than an hour later. I think back to two years ago to ask
26 FEBRUARY 2022 // dentaltown.com

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