An ethical question - I couldn't reach my dentist; should I switch?

I like to think of my dentist as a personal friend. He was my brother's college roommate and I have been taking my boys to him for 15 or so years. He's done a great job, including root canals and crowns for me. In the last few years, I haven't had dental insurance and he's given me a break on his fees a couple of times (but I paid him in cash, so it's Uncle Sam that was shorted).


Yesterday at football practice, my son had two of his teeth knocked out. The only emergency number for my dentist was his home machine and no one answered. I called another dentist (who my dentist had taking his patients last spring when he was on vacation and the same son chipped his two front teeth nearly off playing basketball.)


The second dentist had is cell number as an emergency number and he dropped his kids off at a neighbors to come back to his office to re-insert my son's teeth. Should I switch to dentist #2? I feel like I owe him my regular business.

An ethical question - I couldn't reach my dentist; should I switch?
I wouldn`t . Remember that your dentist has a right to some sort of private life as much as anyone . He did the best he could for you in case of emergency while on holidays . The stand-in dentist was doing just that ....... standing in for YOUR dentist .





You don`t owe dentist #2 your business , and I honestly don`t see why you think you do . Why break up a friendship over something like this ??





There`s another problem you haven`t considered . Dentist #2 is going to go on holidays once a year , and probably have your dentist stand in for HIM !





Then what do you do ?? Go to a THIRD dentist ?
Reply:Your son's teeth were knocked out completely?





Instead of frantically calling your dentist, and then the other one, why didn't you just take your son to the ER?





There are dentists on call at every hospital...





It's up to you if you want to switch to Dentist #2, but just like the first answerer said, Dentist #1 may be on call for him during his vacation...
Reply:stay w/ dentist 1.