Dr. Zulema Valdivia

Summary Dr. Valdivia’s incompetence and callousness led to my not having a medically necessary tooth extraction completed (tooth reabsorption). Dr. Valdivia wasted appointments by (1) ordering an unnecessary medical clearance; and then denying my general doctor’s medical clearance because she confused fasting and non-fasting glucose blood tests; as well as (2) failing to communicate with my dentist to clarify his referral after the initial appointment. To then cover up her incompetence at not obtaining the correct referral during the intervening 1½ months between appointments, Dr. Valdivia tried to gaslight me by denying I had come in for surgery — instead saying I had merely come in for her to review my X-rays despite her cancelling another appointment and refusing to see me without medical clearance intended for surgery, not reviewing X-rays. Finally, Dr. Zulema reneged on her agreeing to surgery despite knowing the longer the tooth remains unextracted the greater the risk to… my overall condition. Detail I received a periodontist referral to see Dr. Valdiva for a tooth extraction. which my dentist advised me to have done as soon as possible because the tooth is undergoing reabsorption which means the bacteria is eating away at my tooth and the longer the tooth remains the greater the probability of the bacteria spreading (gums, bone, teeth, etc.). I thought I would be having the tooth extracted when I first scheduled the appointment, but Dr. Valdiva said this appointment was merely an initial consultation. I told her that my dentist said the procedure was medically necessary to have completed urgently and Dr. Valdiva and the earliest subsequent appointment for the tooth extraction could be made was a month later. She also noted that the referral was for the wrong tooth and had me have further X-rays to see if that tooth had problems. Despite the referral for the wrong tooth, Dr. Valdiva never bothered to communicate with my dentist about correcting the referral or the urgency of the situation. I also told her I had last seen a doctor two years ago and had surgery once in my life a decade ago. Dr. Valdiva also ordered me to have a medical clearance for the surgery which both my insurance provider and another periodontist said was unnecessary and only needed for patients on blood thinners. Even so, I then made an appointment with my physician, got bloodwork and received his medical clearance. However, Dr. Valdiva next bizarrely overruled my general doctor’s medical clearance stating ex post facto that she now wanted an A1C test despite having never requested the test before during our initial consultation. I lost the appointment and later discovered from Dr. Mauskar of Dentists of Coral Gables (not my general dentist but the dentist Dr. Valdiva is affiliated with) that Dr. Valdiva had confused fasting with non-fasting glucose levels and had incorrectly written down that I had last seen a doctor 10 years ago when I clearly told her at my appointment now more than a month ago that I had surgery 10 years ago and had last seen a doctor 2 years ago. Finally, after clarifying Dr. Valdiva’s errors, Dr. Valdiva gave her medical clearance (despite my doctor having already given his medical clearance which Dr. Valdiva had asked of him in the first place). I arranged a subsequent appointment for the extraction and requested from the Dean at our law school to miss class. I asked the front office staff when making the appointment whether I needed a new referral and they told me that I did not because I had a referral for the initial appointment. When I came for the surgery, the front office told me to allot a couple of hours for parking and had me sign a document acknowledging that Dr. Valdiva is an independent contractor and not an employee of Dentists of Coral Gables. When I came for the surgery, the hygienist and then the general dentist said that surgery could not be performed because the referral was for the wrong tooth. I told them that this information was old and told to me by Dr. Valdiva at our initial consultation about a month and a half ago. It was obvious that Dr. Valdiva had failed to contact my dentist or even told the staff at Dentists of Coral Gables. Dr. Valdiva could also have easily asked me to contact my dentist at any point to clarify the referral given Dr. Valdiva herself knew I was having surgery on that tooth. The same pattern continued of Dr. Valdiva not clearly thinking of what she needed for surgery beforehand—not caring about her patient’s time or condition due to repeated delays caused by her mistakes. I proceeded to call my dentist and arrange for him to send the correct referral which he immediately did. Rather than merely say she had made a mistake about the referral, Dr. Valdiva attempted to gaslight by denying that I was coming to have my tooth extracted in the first place. She said that my appointment was merely to have her review X-Rays despite her cancelling my previous appointment and refusing to see me without medical clearance that is for surgery, not reviewing X-rays. Dr. Valdiva accused me of manipulating the system when I called my dentist to clarify the referral instead of welcoming good doctor-specialist communication as positive coordination. Two hours after I had initially arrived Dr. Valdiva agreed to do the extraction with the correct referral. But then moments later, an assistant came into the room to inform me that Dr. Valdiva has full appointments until 5:30 and to come back next month. Zulema Valdiva knew that the longer the tooth remains unextracted the greater the risk to my overall tooth condition. Based on our interactions, I believe that Zulema Valdiva did not perform the surgery after agreeing because she wanted to teach me a lesson about respect as she had reminded me that “she wears the robe.” (yes she a