My Pointe Claire Dental Clinic Horror Story

On the morning of May 6, 2026, I went to the Dental Clinic of Pointe-Claire expecting a routine procedure.

My tooth had broken a year earlier and it needed a crown. I wasn't nervous or afraid. I trusted Dr. Mauricio Galvis. He was always warm and kind.

But today, something felt off. I couldn't put my finger on it, but it started when the dental assistant, who was normally also very kind, seemed angry about something. I tried to break the ice by mentioning how early it was and how the sky looked. Her response was clipped and terse.

As the procedure began, I noticed that Dr. Mauricio also seemed bothered by something. He seems like a quiet man, but it felt like there was something happening under the surface.

At this point, I felt stressed.

As the assistant, whose name I believe might be Rina, began preparing the temporary crown, she abruptly got up and left the room. She left the dental suction in my mouth at a strange angle, and I wondered what was going on.

The dentist was still in the room with me.

The assistant appeared in the doorway of the room where I was receiving treatment and told the dentist that if he didn't speak with her in two minutes, she was leaving. She was extremely angry.

At this point, I didn't know what to think. The dentist was working on my mouth. Was the assistant really going to leave? The painful procedure had already started—what would happen?

The dentist got up and followed her. They went into a room within the practice, and I could hear a fight going on.

At this point, I wanted to leave, but felt I could not due to the procedure already being in progress. The timer went off on the temporary crown. No one came. It continued to beep and beep. The suction sucked at nothing, and I wondered if I could take it out.

The dentist came back first. He seemed extremely agitated. All the warmth I was used to seeing was gone. I felt extremely vulnerable and afraid.

He began to work on my tooth. He went to make an injection, and I flinched at the pain. He told me in an angry tone to stay still and that now it would 'pinch again.' I was shocked by how he was speaking to me with such fury. I had barely moved, and it was solely due to the pain. But I didn't respond because I didn't want to make things worse.

The dental assistant came back at some point, still seeming angry. The procedure went forward. I was in significant pain. Normally I need two injections of the pain-numbing agent, but they had only given me one.

The dentist kept complaining about me moving in a very angry way, while the assistant would toss him passive-aggressive statements. I could not help moving here and there because it was so painful. It was like I could feel every nerve. Instead, I was being berated like a child misbehaving.

Finally, the dental assistant asked, 'Are you in pain?' I nodded. The dentist then gave me another injection.

For the rest of the procedure, I couldn't feel anything, but the anger between the dentist and his assistant continued. I wanted to leave, but could not. Leaving in the middle of the procedure would just mean more pain later, wouldn't it?

The numbing agent would wear off, and then where would I be? Instead, the people working on my mouth were both angry and gruff, and it felt like they were taking it out on me. I was extremely stressed, and then I just felt myself mentally leave the room.

At the end, the dental assistant leaned in and told me, 'The dentist cut the inside of your cheek.' I felt a deep gash there.

At that point, I was trying very hard not to cry. He didn't say anything about cutting me by accident. I was bleeding not just from the procedure, but from the accidental cut. At this point, I felt powerless and depressed. I felt like I couldn't speak, as if I were in a daze.

I went out to the reception area. The receptionist was talking to me, but it felt like I was somewhere else mentally.

I couldn't gather myself. I couldn't even find the right card to pay. I used an old credit card of my husband's, but it didn't work. I called him and told him what happened. He said he'd come down and pay it.

The receptionist seemed like she didn't want me to leave until he got there, but I had to go before I began to cry. I had been going there for months and had paid them thousands of dollars; I had no intention of running out on a bill.

She said they'd have to ask the office manager, so I followed her there. The office manager seemed disturbed when she saw me. She kept asking me if something was wrong.

I told the receptionist, 'Your dentist and assistant are fighting.' She said nothing and put her head down.

I left and filled the pain medication prescription. I couldn't speak at the pharmacy; I just gave them a note. At this point, my whole face hurt. I drove around for hours before going home.

I felt like something had been taken from me. Not just trust, but as if I had been legally battered, treated like I didn't exist, like a punching bag. I had paid $2,000 to be treated like this. My mother told me to take a picture of the gash inside my cheek, so I did.

This was only the beginning of the pain.

For the next two and a half weeks, I had to take pain medication every 5 to 6 hours. The pain in my teeth was so unbearable that it would wake me up at 3:00 AM every night. I could not go back to that dentist; I knew it. I emailed them and told them that what happened was wrong.

They seemed unwilling to discuss it by email and asked me to come back to the office. I could not. I just couldn't. The thought of being in that office again filled me with fear. I had never been afraid of the dentist in that way before, but I simply could not do it. I offered to meet downstairs in the lobby, but he did not respond to that.

I ended up going to another dentist because the pain would not go away. If I did not take my 600mg prescription Advil every 5 to 6 hours, the pain would be so bad it would give me a splitting headache. The tooth ached like nothing I had ever felt, and the pain radiated throughout my face.

The new dentist I finally visited said this wasn't normal. I hesitated to tell her everything that had happened, so I told her the bare minimum. She did an X-ray. She said it looked like the nerves had been agitated to the point that I would need a root canal.

She told me there was no point in getting the crown now because it would just have to be drilled through anyway. She referred me to a specialist who confirmed it: the roots were shot, and I would need a root canal. She said that, at times, nerves can go through so much trauma that this happens. She also noted the gash inside my cheek.

That is where we are today. I do not know if I can endure more treatment on my tooth. A week before the crown appointment, Dr. Mauricio Galvis removed two of my upper wisdom teeth right next to the crown, which was also extremely painful to recover from. I asked the new dentist about just removing the crown tooth entirely. She said it is possible, but the corresponding tooth below it would also have to be removed to keep the teeth working properly together.

So, this is where Pointe-Claire Clinique has landed me:

• Two cleanings within one year. The dental assistant doing the first one complimented me on how clean my teeth were. I didn't even know the second appointment was booked as a cleaning; I thought we were going to work on the crown. The second cleaning was not covered by my insurance because it was booked two days before the required six-month waiting period.

• Two wisdom teeth removed.

• A temporary crown placed either over destroyed nerves or over nerves that were destroyed in the process.

• A lacerated cheek that I wonder was cut due to the chaotic and contentious environment—whatever was going on between the assistant and the dentist.

The new dentist is asking for $2,500 for the root canal, and then it will cost between $1,500 and $2,000 to fit another crown. Otherwise, I can choose to lose two teeth entirely.

During this time, I have been taking Advil and Tylenol for the pain every 5 to 6 hours over the course of three weeks. I have struggled through work and taking care of my family. I have had my child's graduation hundreds of miles away that we traveled for, my own birthday, and my son's birthday: all spent in pain.

Nobody deserves this. I think about what would happen to someone who had no access to resources. What would they do? Go back to an environment where emotions run so high that patients are afraid? Or just deal with the pain?

Dentists need to understand that they are not gods. They cannot treat people however they want and expect them to simply absorb it. Pain is real, and it changes life drastically. The actions of medical professionals have real consequences. When someone is vulnerable, in pain, and seeking your help, they deserve to be and feel safe.

I am writing this for anyone who has experienced this and didn't have a voice, or thought that they just had to move on with life. No one should have to go through this. I know how businesses can be.

At times, they treat anyone who stands up against wrong treatment as simply disgruntled or bad, but that's not true. My question to Dr. Mauricio Galvis is, if it were your daughter instead of me, would you be ok with what I went through?

I emailed all of this to the dentist and will post all of the communications in my next post.

Thank you for reading.