Surgery Failure and Long-term Complications

Review of Dr Y from a fellow physician (resident)

I came to Dr. Yaremchuk for a custom chin/jaw implant in April 2023 because he was friends with a mentor of mine.

Immediately, I was disappointed in the communication between the nursing staff and Dr. Yaremchuk. I was told that I would be able to return home and to work after a few days, and that I could stay at the hotel during the acute recovery phase. When I arrived, I was told that I needed to stay overnight at his facility (at 1000$/night), and that I would not be able to return home (I was out of town) until the end of the week. Luckily, because I was a physician, Dr. Yaremchuk allowed me to stay at the hotel instead of his facility. Dr. Yaremchuk was also kind enough to refund me for my extra hotel nights and Uber rides, but that still did not justify the poor communication from his office, nor offset the financial hardship of my being off work for so long.

To summarize my surgical experience, the implant was placed incorrectly with the chin protruding off to the side at about a 15-20 degree angle. Further, I had complete loss of sensation to the entirety of my lower lip and chin on both sides. Also, I awoke with an injury that made speaking difficult and resulted in an asymmetrical smile and inability to hold liquids in my mouth (I think it is a marginal mandibular nerve injury, but Dr. Yaremchuk adamantly denies this). I also do not feel that I was counseled well on the potential side effects by Dr. Yaremchuk nor his fellow, and it was disturbing to me that I had accumulated such a high number of supposedly rare complications. Dr. Yaremchuk offered to take me back to surgery for a revision the following day, but, given all of the complications I had had so far, I opted to just have him remove the implant. In all honesty, I had lost confidence in Dr. Yaremchuk and his office to care for me properly. As such, I left the office with scars, nerve damage, and no implant. He provided me with a 5,000$ (I had paid 16,000$ in total) refund only after I mentioned that I would likely have to take more time off work to recover and was afraid I would not be able to pay my bills.

Now as I am writing this, almost 3 months later, my quality of life is greatly decreased. I still cannot feel my chin and lips. I struggle to eat solid foods as chewing has caused me to bite through my lips on numerous occasions (which has required stitches on numerous occasions). I struggle with speech and holding liquids in my mouth. I drool when I eat now, and my facial asymmetry has not corrected. The wounds within my mouth also did not heal, and I now have two large pockets on either side of my cheeks that collect food (which I have to scrape out with a dental pic every night). Further, when I emailed Dr. Yaremchuk asking for his office to refund the remaining surgical fee (7,000$), he stopped corresponding with me.

I am very disappointed in the behavior of this physician. Although all surgery has risks, I feel that there were very simple things that could have been done to make my overall experience better that were neglected.