A tale of TERROR

[Daniel33]

I don`t know where to begin so shall simply chronicle events as best I can remember them in chronological order and recount my experiences with the state of dentistry in the Uk, as I don`t believe its bad luck but a sad enditement on the state of dentistry for most of the public.

I am 33 now and my misery began in 2004 when after biting into a sandwich part of an upper right 7 tooth broke off. For reference the 1s are the front teeth and the 7s are at the back next to the wisdom teeth. I was 25 at the time with a reasonable history of maintaining my teeth ...not great but not horrific either.

I went to a drop in dental practice in absolute agony asking to see an NHS dentist only to be told that there was a 6 month waiting list and someone could see me tomorrow to help me. Being naive at this stage, I went home assured that "help was on it`s way" only to return and be given 2 painkiller tablets and instructions to rest ...WTF! ? I could have prescribed myself those painkillers at a pharmacy, as they were not even prescription strength and made a mockery of the long wait for so called "expert advce". I realised the state of NHS dentistry even at this stage was useless, especially after hearing horror stories from friends about how they turned up for minor fillings and ended up having teeth removed due to mistakes and no advice on root canals being an option.

I booked an emergency private appointment at a female dentist local to me who whilst seeming affable enough, displayed a fairly poor understanding of dentistry, although at the time I accepted this as being the norm . She told me the upper right 7 had an impacted wisdom tooth under it so it needed a root canal. This took 3 visits and I was in agony between appointments. At the conclusions of the 3rd visit she said it was finished and being out of pain I had no reason to disbelieve her so paid my money and left.......Fast forward now to January 2007 and after eating a meal a small part of the lower right 7 broke off due again to an impacted wisdom tooth. I was horried as at 28 the thought of losing any teeth was completely unacceptable, so went back to the original dentist I saw in 2004 thinking she had done a decent job on the upper right 7 and asked her to sort it out.

I said this is the second tooth I had problems with, so because I trusted her at this stage I asked her to do a full checkup and give me "a treatment plan" During 4 months between January and April 2007 she worked on 7 or 8 teeth that she said needed fillings (they didnt I later discovered) and asked me while I`m doing this would you like veneers? At this stage I didnt even know what they were, but she explained they were "wafer thin" like a fingernail that went on the teeth to straighten them out. Now granted my teeth were not perfect, but they weren`t too bad and didnt cause a negative impact on my life in terms of an aesthetic basis in day to day living. She was so insistent about these veneers, I agreed halfway through one drilling session on a tooth that was having an unnecessary filling just to shut her up. It was my plan at this stage simply to agree to them and then when she had finished the fillings change my mind , pay for the essential work in maintaining the teeth and leave the cosmetics out of it as I was happy with them in the first place. I`d told her on at least 4 or 5 different occasions I didn`t wish to have veneers but for reasons I suspect purely motivated by money she refused to accept this so agreed to her demands purely to stop the screeching in my ear about having them. At the end of the latest drilling session which I assumed she had been working on back molars I ran my tongue over my front teeth and was horrified to find gaps at the top and bottom where she had "prepped the teeth " for the veneers. I shouted at her assistant to hand me a mirror and almost burst into tears when i saw a mouth that looked as though it had been hit with a baseball bat and holes all over my mouth . The upper left /right 2s (next to the front teeth) had been drilled so far back I could barely see them and she had done the same with the lower right 2 on the bottom (the left side being straight already) She had also drilled down a canine (lower right3) to a practical stump to make way for the veneers which she classified as "minimal invasion" I shouted "what the hell have you done to my teeth" and her response was relax when the veneers come you "will be chuffed with the results".

I was scheduled to return a week later to get them fitted and as the damage she had caused was irreversible I felt I had no other option but to get the veneers. After waiting a week I returned trying to convince myself that they would be ok so sat back in the chair and awaited this incompetent idiot to fit them. She tried but failed as apparently they were not the right size despite them being made in a lab (dont forget this is a private surgery not NHS !) so she whittled my teeth down still further and after over an hour finally managed to glue them all on. Her response was "Now take how look how nice they look" .. I looked and couldn`t believe what I was seeing. The teeth were a completely different shade than the rest of my teeth and were so bulky I looked like a lead character from a carry on comedy. They felt awful and looked horrific...I felt so ill and sick after seeing them it was all I could do to avoid throwing up in the bloody dentist chair. I told her how the colour didnt match but she said " Not to worry she will give me some tooth whitener" to bleach the other teeth but what the hapless cretin didnt realise was some of the veneers were too dark so how would that work as bleach cant affect veneers.

I left in tears not just with how they looked but in severe pain from where she had put the veneers and also teeth at the back of my mouth where she had put unnecessary fillings in my mouth. I spent the next night with no sleep and in the morning phoned to tell her my whole mouth was hurting but primarily the lower right 6 molar where she had performed a root canal. She said come in and we will take it out ...Although I was in extreme pain the ease that she just as a matter of factly offered to take a main biting tooth out at 28 was unacceptable and the alarm bells that had been ringing to how incompetent she was rang loud enough for me to phone her , leave a message saying she had destroyed my life and that I would be taking legal action against her . This was early May 2007 in which for the past 4 months I had been in on and off pain but just assumed most of the pain was down to normal dentistry with little experience and naivity mixed in but the truth was at every appointment she was doing more and more damage to my teeth. It was also during this time I experienced a severe abscess in the lower right 7 molar which she had performed a root canal on just weeks before and was comfortably the worst pain I`ve ever been in on my time on this earth.

Now at this stage to portray the scene .. I have several veneers I didnt want at the expense of damaged helthy teeth , lots of unneccesary fillings causing pain , at least one abscess and inability to eat due to my point of bite meaning teeth at the front clash with such short back teeth. I realise obviously she couldnt be trusted (too late) and booked an appointment with a private dentist in Manchester city centre to try to sort the mess out.

I am going to write this in stages as it`s so long to cover in one post so shall resume shortly

 

[letsconnect]

did you see a solicitor about this assault ? looking forward to hearing the rest of the story (well, not sure if "looking forward" is the right term, but you know what I mean!). So sorry that this has happened to you - this is truly awful and that woman should be behind bars .

 

[Kim]

What a bloomin' sham! I sooooo feel for you, and like Lets will await your continuation.

 

[Daniel33]

Cheers guys, anyway continuing on with events I was fortunate at this stage to have some capital behind me as without it, I have no doubt this woman would have left me needing dentures at 28 due to the severity of the problems she left me with.

The timetable of events resumes at May 2007 after leaving her place of butchery and going to a private dentist in Manchester ( I live in Bury around 8 miles away so not too far) and explaining all my problems. At this stage the level of pain I was in, meant I was unable to function at a basic level in day to day life. I had shooting pains across my jaw , terrible isolated pains on different teeth when eating which showed me the problem was with multiple teeth she had worked on in addition to the horrific cosmetic work she had carried out.

The dentist I saw couldn`t believe how poor the work she carried out was, as he described the fillings as blobs just put on the teeth with little shape and the veneers were some of the worst he had ever seen. Not only did they look unnatural but they felt so false i could barely speak and they were so bulky, they pushed my lips out to such an extent I looked like I had just been beaten up by a heavyweight boxer. He removed the veneers and I was once again able to see the gaps in my teeth which she had caused, which was extremely upsetting as well as causing huge amounts of anger to not being informed what the "minimal prep" work she carried out entailed or else i would never have agreed to it. The worst area was the lower right 3 and he wanted to put a permanent bridge in which involved more whittling down of teeth (the lower right 2 and the 4 which was already at 50% due to her "prep") which i was reluctant to do. Although it was a case of shutting the stable door after the horse had bolted , I was determined not to lose any more enamel than necessary. By sheer good fortune I was reading a magazine in the reception on dentistry techniques and there was the procedure of building the teeth up using larger than normal fillings to restore there volume so managed to convince him to do this rather than more "prepping of teeth". I`ve no doubt that he wouldn`t have mentioned this as an option had I not suggested it, as he said beforehand the only option was a bridge according to him which technically wasn`t true.

He then put fillings on the lower right 3 and lower right 4 to close the gap which although aesthetically wasn`t ideal, it looked much better than it did before and an option I preferred contrary to damaging the lower right two further to put a bridge on it. At this stage I was in significant pain which was just as big a problem as the cosmetics so after xrays were taken he basically told me every tooth needed to be redone which he did. This was around june 2007 by the time the treatment plan had finished and i was still in pain predominantly on the right side of the jaw which had the majority of the fillings. As I`m sure many of you on here will agree, toothache is one of the worst pains imaginable and just grinds you down day after day which it did throughout the whole summer. Every time I phoned the clinic i was told "give it time for the teeth to settle down etc etc " so days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months. Eventually I couldn`t stand anymore so just went to the clinic and told the receptionist that I refuse to leave until something is done regarding the amount of pain i was in. It wasnt the odd twinge it was horrific pain that lasted all day and intensified for several hours after every meal and not localised anywhere so impossible to tell where it was coming from. After seeing the same guy again he told me the lower right 6 needed a root canal despite his filling and saying it wasnt necessary so referred me to the root canal guy that worked there.

I try never to judge anyone on a first meeting but the dentist that worked as the endodontist must have been around 70 and seemed to be argumentative with everything I said. I said hello to him and said that the lower right 6 needs a root canal according to his colleague to which his reply was "I`l be the judge of that " and after what seemed to be an eternity working on the tooth said that the filling he had done would be sufficient and it didn`t need a root canal. He then proceeded to shake his head and said "dear oh dear your teeth are a mess, you`d be better having them out and implants put in" to which a fairly heated exchange occurred primarily due to the manner of him saying it with a chuckle which I found completely inappropriate and the shock of hearing that perfectly healthy teeth had been ruined to the state it was preferable to have them taken out.

After going home the pain was worse than ever , all over the jaw but mainly from the lower right 6 tooth he had worked on which obviously hadn`t been done correctly as my point of bite was now back to front teeth clashing and part of the filling coming away at one point. I returned back to the clinic to see the original dentist and was told angrily," I thought I told you to get a filling on it as according to the xrays there was significant decay on it" I obviously told him I had seen the so called expert who was senior to him at the practice to which he remained silent. It was clear that the decay at the centre of the tooth had been missed and after asking him why this decay had been left in the tooth as it was only 2/3 weeks since it was worked on, he had no answer due to not wanting to get into trouble with his colleague. He then redid the filling (4th time) and I was sent home again .

After leaving the tooth again for several weeks I returned in pain (day and night pain stopping me from basic tasks) and he said due to the damage the first dentist did with the veneers he thought the pain was coming from the lower right 3 canine tooth so referred me back to the "specialist " I saw that originally missed the decay in the lower right 6 to perform the root canal. As most of you know the canine tooth at the bottom is much more centrally placed and the thought of losing that tooth if the root canal went wrong filled me with dread but felt I had no other option. After sitting down in the chair I was given the anaesthetic and watched as he began poking around preparing for the root canal . His hands were literally shaking and I said "are you confident you can save the tooth" to which his response was " who knows". Had this happened in my early 20s I probably would have let him continue but at 28 I decided that response was completely unacceptable and he looked as though he was barely capable of tying his own shoe laces with his shaky jerking hand movements let alone working on a crucial centrally placed tooth. Having done research on the root canals I realised if a root canal fails then the only option is extraction which petrified me so I stood up and just walked out of his office determined to find another dentist. The day after this I received a call from the clinic and the basic theme of it was I had been rude so it was best I found another clinic which I was determined to do anyway.

This is now July 2007 and was in pain from multiple areas of my mouth, with large fillings covering some of the holes left in the lower part and nothing done cosmetically to the upper teeth. The cosmetics at this stage werent a priority as I was in tears of pain throughtout the day with shooting stabbing pains going up both sides of my face. I then set about finding a 3 rd dentist to try to resolve these problems... more to follow

 

[Daniel33]

Late July I attend a 3rd dentist who I was initially impressed with and seemed very sympathetic to my problems. He took xrays of all my teeth (amazing I havent had some sort of radiation problem with all the xrays of my teeth in such a short period of time) and drafted up yet another "treatment plan" to resolve the issues.

The worst pain was coming from the lower right 6 tooth so this filling was redone YET AGAIN and I was told that the nerve was away from the decay although it was an extremely deep filling and it would recover. I still had terrible problems with my point of bite where teeth clashed at the front which in themselves caused pain as they were the first point of contact due to poor fillings at the back. He proceeded to redo yet more fillings and informed me that both root canals I had on the upper right 7 (2004) and lower right 7 both with the original butcher were extremely poor (missed roots and not fully done to bottom)and he would have to redo them. He also informed me that since my point of bite was off he proposed to do multiple crowns on the back teeth to realign my bite. At this stage I had done some research into dental techniques I previously knew nothing about and realised crowns meant a great deal of prep work done on teeth which as mentioned previously in the thread i was reluctant to undertake unless it was absolutely necessary due to wanting to keep as much of my own natural teeth as possible. My stance was (and still is) that if a tooth doesn`t in it`s own right need a crown then it shouldnt be made into one simply to correct bite issues that may arise with other teeth. At this stage he became extremely aggressive asking me if I knew his job better than he did and "maybe I should perform my own dentistry if I knew best".. this place was the third private clinic I had been to. At this stage I gave some ground as I wondered where all this was going to end and began to question myself even though I now know that I was right to question his dental techniques. The fact that I was now encountering such complete incompetency at a THIRD private practise made me question my own beliefs so I agreed to let him redo the fillings and leave the crowns until after he had finished so I could think more about it instead of finding yet another clinic.

The redoing of the fillings took around a month of continual appointments during which I was in pain day and night continuously. I turned 29 that summer and can recall looking in the mirror thinking maybe it would be better if I was dead instead of this painful torture that I was going through where there seemed to be no light at the end of the tunnel. As the time of the crowns approached I again questioned the necessity of the crowns as he was planning to put crowns on teeth which only had small areas of decay and clearly didn`t need them to balance my bite. Again he lost his temper so said he would put temporary fillings on the back teeth to bulk them up which would stop the front teeth clashing. I let him do it not really understanding what was going on in a haze of pain already with it all so allowed him to proceed squirting what can only be described as dollops of filling onto several teeth that took seconds rather than minutes.

After arriving home the pain intensified and what had happened (which I was unaware of at the time) is that the filling material had seeped into the nerves of some back teeth as they had untreated cavities meaning I had more nerve pain. The plus side was the front teeth weren`t clashing but the negatives far outweighed the positives as my bite was far too heavy on one side and not balanced. I was plunged into a world of pain that even exceeded what had occurred previously and despite several returns to the clinic I was assured that the pain would go and it was "coincidence" that other teeth had started hurting after he had put this temporary filling material on them which I knew was rubbish.

After what seemed an eternity of painful days and night around October 2007 I returned to the clinic and informed him heatedly I couldn`t stand any more pain and after parting with around £2000 what the hell was he going to do about it as I was in a worse situation now than I was before seeing him. His response was that it was all coincidence and the teeth that were hurting all needed root canals which he wanted to book me in for.

As mentioned previously the root canal option worried me as I realised in essence it is effectively killing the tooth and leaving it at risk of an abscess should any cracks appear. Due to the number of teeth he wanted to work on and the risks involved I asked him what chance there was of saving my teeth. His response was there was a good chance (over 90%) but having witnessed first hand the standard of his work I began to question whether I should entrust this man with my teeth. After all the horrific experiences I had experienced so far the first positive event was in answer to a question I asked him as he was so arrogant I said " so you are the best guy in the north west of England to do root canals ?" to which he responded yes apart from Dr ******.

I`m not naming this guy as I don`t want his name to be associated with all these events but after googling and researching discovered he was one of the best in the UK working at one of the most expensive private clinics in the UK. I had reached a point where my quality of life was so poor and my health was deteriorating due to complete stupidity and incompetent dentistry, I realised I needed to go to the top of the tree so to speak and try to rectify these serious problems which had clearly been caused by gross medical negligence so in November 2007 I took all these problems to my fourth private clinic... more to follow

 

[Daniel33]

so continuing on..

I realised how posh this place was when waiting for my first appointment i saw Gary Neville (man utd player) sitting across from me in the waiting room. My problems were so severe due to useless dentist after useless dentist I realised if this place couldn`t help me then nowhere could.

After seeing the specialist working there he told I would need 3 root canals on the lower right 7 which was not done properly, the lower right six where the previous dentists filling had leaked and the dreaded canine tooth the lower right 3 which had been whittled away for the veneer earlier in the year.Although it turned out these werent even the worst affected teeth due to what can only be described as dental butchery previously, I proceeded to have the three root canals.

It is my belief up until the present day that all 3 could have been avoided if it wasn`t for the barbaric treatment which damaged them and I went through all three. Having read some of the horror stories about root canals I was extremely worried but it turned out to be a comparitive walk in the park both in pain and lack of complications. All three teeth have stayed painfree (5 years and counting) and the pain experienced during the root canals was minimal which just illustrates how under the right dentist these procedures can be successful. Each root canal cost around £1,000 as due to the horrific state of dental practices in the Uk I realised the best chance of success was to go to the very best place around.

Although the pain in these isolated teeth had gone I was still in general pain in my mouth throughout Christmas2007/ spring 2008 which I kept waiting to go away but it didn`t. Although the root canals had been a success I was worried about having any more for possible problems in the future so continued to live in pain (better than it was ) but still affecting my daily enjoyment of life and each day became at times a struggle to go through.

As summer of 2008 began the pain became intolerable so I went back for more xrays and tests which showed that there was an issue with the nerve in the lower right 5 tooth. This was of no great surprise as it was the only original filling from the first butcher I saw that had survived. It turned out she had damaged that tooth irreversibly as well so I went through yet another root canal. I was also experiencing increasing sensitivity on the left side of my jaw which so far had been comparitively pain free in terms of isolated pain. The main thing which had got me through increasing anger towards these incompetent dentists was that at least the damage was confined to the right side of my jaw but after further tests it revealed that fillings had leaked on the lower left 6 and 7 teeth which were performed by the 3rd dentist (the one that put the temporary fillings on as a "bite improver") so both these teeth had root canals.

After going home (now around August 2008) I was literally like a punch drunk boxer on the ropes from the emotional turmoil of all the treatment and never ending pain that seemed to have no end in sight. Throughout September/ October 2008 I was in continual pain which wasnt specific but radiated across my whole jaw inclining me to believe that a major nerve had been damaged and I really would be in pain for the rest of my life.

During this time I had seen several dentists at the "posh place" who said they thought the problem was not dental related and advised me to see a GP. I was convinced it was dentally related so asked to be referred to the dental hospital but whilst the appointment was coming through I started having isolated pain in the upper right 7 tooth which was the original tooth treated in 2004 by the first butcher I saw with a poorly done root canal. Up until this stage most if not all my pain was coming through my lower jaw but after studying diagrams of how the nerves are interconnected it occurred to me that maybe the pain was transcending towards the lower jaw from this upper right 7. After insisting an xray of this tooth was performed on this tooth around November 2008 it turned out I was right as there was a huge abscess on this tooth that had effectively been undiscovered for around 2 years... more to follow

 

[Daniel33]

so continuing on ... to summarise at this point we are at the end of 2008 and 2 years of fairly continual pain day and night with pain radiating primarily across the lower jaw but now also the upper with several root canals/fillings that were required due to previous dentists and an abscess that was almost certainly there for the 2 years. Although I had xrays many times of my lower jaw it didn`t occur to any dentist to check the upper jaw, as I was suffering pain in the lower jaw which was probably this upper right 7 tooth being the main culprit.

It would be fair to say that even the fourth (posh) clinic should take some degree of responsibility for not discovering this abscess but all the root canals and fillings I believe have been done to a very high standard so this negligence pales into comparison compared with what butchery I had experienced at the previous clinics and can overlook it.

My philosophy with teeth is very much preservation but given the amount of pain I had been suffering and the length of time it had been occurring for, I told the dentist just take the tooth out, as it was a back tooth and after conducting my own bite test realised it wasn`t even on the point of bite so would not cause (IMO) major problems if it was taken out.

My dentist was convinced that the tooth could be saved(sensible dentistry IMO) so agreed to have yet another root canal (this one redone from the 2004 one) and all the decay removed. I realised how serious the infection was when he drilled into the tooth and the amount of puss oozing out of it was like something from a horror film and prayed this would finally resolve the pain issue. As the weeks passed the pain gradually got better throughout my mouth which confirmed what I already knew in that this tooth was responsible for a huge amount of pain I had been experiencing for 2 YEARS and had simply been missed by inept dentists. Although the pain was several levels better than it had been, the first half of 2009 was spent feeling uncomfortable especially after meals with spasmodic pain affecting my quality of life rather than completely destroying it. There were multiple problems with most fillings the third clinic had done so these had to be redone along with a root canal on the lower right 5. This was done before the abscess was discovered on the upper right 7 when my pain levels were at their highest and I informed the dentist (the posh place) I was still in pain on the lower right side. As I had a root canal in every tooth in that quadrant of my mouth I told him it must be the lower right 5. After long and protracted discussion he reluctantly agreed to do a root canal on that tooth despite it not being needed but at the time I hadn`t a clue where the pain was coming from and neither had he so had reached breaking point with it all.

As summer of 2009 approached the cosmetic side of matters at last overtook the mechanical/pain side of the teeth as the pain although was still there it had reduced to an acceptable level. I regard myself as comparitively vain so you can imagine how bad the pain was not to be concerned with teeth that looked as though they had ben hit with a plank of wood for 2 and a half years. Each day during that time was just a battle to get to the end of it with mind numbing pain all over my face but even during this time I was aware how bad my teeth looked due to the horrific dental treatment I had received so avoided social situations where I had to speak to people and was effectively a recluse.

I had a veneer fitted to the lower right two which had been damaged by the first dentist and work done to the lower right three. The damage was so severe that dentists at the fourth clinic were adament a bridge would be the best option but I elected not to have anything more invasive unless necessary due to reasons listed previously.During the second half of 2009 I was so sick of dentists and in truth had exhausted all my finances which at this stage had exceeded £10,000 I resigned myself to having cosmetically bad teeth at the top of my mouth and intermittent pain in my mouth for the rest of my life. It was a vast improvement to my previous situation as at one stage I wondered if all the stress and barbaric treatment I had suffered would kill me either through stress or just physical trauma ... more to follow

 

[Julie30]

Daniel33, what you have been through is horrendous I can't believe people like that are even allowed to practice Dentistry.

 

[Daniel33]

so bringing the story up to the present date..

As 2009 turned to 2010 the pain was certainly manageable on a day to day basis which was something I couldn`t have imagined. There was still pain coming from the upper right 7 despite it having a root canal but as it was relatively minor I didn`t mind and also if I had episodes of mouth pain I could mentally attribute it to that tooth with the fall back comfort it could be extracted as a worst case scenario. In other words if I was in pain I would console myself by thinking it wouldn`t be permanent as that tooth was responsible whereas if I had it extracted and was still in pain I wouldn`t know where else to go with what appeared to be a never ending circus of pain.

Throughout the seond half of 2010 and the whole of 2011 I was practically pain free which was incredible given the amount of torture gone through previously. During this time I still needed 2 deep fillings in an upper left 3 canine and a lower left 6, which I was told may need root canals but fortunately they both settled down.

At the start of 2012 once again the cosmetic side of matters resurfaced it`s ugly head as I had been pain free for a significant time which was my priority but was still left with the aesthetic problems of the upper teeth that were damaged 5 years earlier. You may ask why had I left it 5 years to sort them out but I can`t overstate just how bad the pain was from other teeth which at times made me wonder if I would survive the experience. That and the huge strain on my finances spending thousands of pounds to rectify previous poor work meant such a lengthy period of time had passed where i was avoiding social situations when i would have to speak etc.... 5 years of my social life lost effectively which I wanted now to sort out.

During these 5 years the only dentist that displayed any real level of competence was the one who performed the root canals and fillings at the fourth clinic so planned to go there to get veneers for the front teeth. As he left I made the decision to have the treatment at the new clinic he had moved to where, although the dentist performing the cosmetic work was different, he was on hand working at the practice if anything went wrong requiring yet more root canals/fillings.

After meeting the dentist who was fitting the veneers, he advised me to whiten the existing teeth primarily at the top where the two veneers on the upper left/right 2 were to be fitted so they could be matched. I was reluctant to get a whole set of veneers due to the preparation of teeth involving taking away enamel on the front two teeth for example and as the two incisors mentioned were the ones whittled down by the first dentist I elected to have two veneers on these 2 and whiten the rest. After the impressions were taken by a girl who looked barely old enough to have left school she then asked me whether I wanted my teeth "cleaned". At the time I weighed up the options as my normal hygienist was at the 4th clinic (posh one) so after she assured me she would be gentle and explaining all the work I had gone through during the past several years, I foolishly allowed her to scale and polish my teeth with the appearance at them in the forefront of my mind which turned out to be a huge mistake. Ultimately she was a professional working at the same clinic as one of the top endodontists in the UK so one would assume she had a basic level of training to do a basic task.. what turned out to be a wrong assumption.

I have had previous experience of hygiene visits and know the amount of pressure/pain that is to be expected and this session was like nothing I have experienced before. I was tempted on more than one occasion to raise my hand telling her to stop but for whatever reason allowed her to finish sick of being mutilated by previous dentists and assuming in the back of my mind I was being overly cautious and it surely couldn`t happen again. Immediately after leaving the clinic I felt in terrible pain and returned the next day to ask for help and an explanation why a basic cleaning had set pain off in teeth that had been relatively pain free for two years. I was told it would go away but two weeks later and the pain no better I returned to the clinic complaining of pain arising from both sides of my mouth....xrays revealed a cavity on the upper right 6 which was apparently "small". I told the girl working on the front desk the pain wasn`t at a level of "small cavity pain" and after so many root canals knew that nerves were seriously affected in at least two teeth not a tiny cavity in one. She then proceeded to quote the usual text book stuff of is the pain keeping you up at night etc which means it is root canal level pain apparently..

After returning the week later there were now two cavities apparently in the upper right 6 and upper right 5. The 5 was a small filling but the 6 had almost reached the nerve so a temporary filling was put in to see if it would settle down...this was all after being told it would be a tiny filling. I was about to leave the dentist chair when I asked if a detailed xray of the upper left six could be taken as pain was just as bad in this tooth as the other. Despite having the full xray where the head is scanned and showing nothing I insisted on having a more detailed close up xray of this tooth despite being told it was unnecessary. Fortunately I was right to insist on the xray as this revealed decay and once again after more drilling this decay had almost reached the nerve but the dentist thought it would settle down. The pain lasted in both teeth for around a month and I am due to go in and have a permanent filling on the upper right 6 as it seems to have settled down along with the tooth on the left . Baring in mind I have a dental checkup every six months and my last checkup was 3 months before these deep decayed cavities were found simply by me insisting that detailed xrays were taken it`s a miracle I have managed to avoid yet more root canals.

In the intervening time I decided to abandon plans to get veneers at this 5th clinic where once again dental standards were lacking and return to the fourth clinic to get my veneers for the front teeth which I had fitted 3 days ago and I am delighted with. I still need to return to the 5th clinic to get a permanent filling on the upper right 6 and a crown on the lower left 7 has ruptured from the 3rd dentist along with a filling on the upper right 7 collapsing but it`s mnor stuff compared with what I have had to put up with in years gone by. Despite the dentist who does my fillings/ root canals/repair work missing the decay in the teeth, his work is of a very high standard and I am relatively pain free and can eat which is a miracle after all that has happened.

In answer to the question posed earlier in the thread about taking legal action , the amount of gross medical negligence from so many different people is so bad i wouldn`t know where to begin. It`s clear the first dentist should take the bulk of the blame but the ensuing "dentistry" I have received has been disgraceful apart from the guy I mentioned who performed the root canals.

It is my opinion that the majority of dentists in the UK fall below what is remotely an "acceptable" standard with so many horror stories from different people and with teeth having so little regenerative abilities finding a decent dentist is more important than finding a decent doctor in IMO. For example if you break an arm that arm will probably heal regardless of medical blunders but if a tooth is drilled into by somebody not competent to do so then it simply can`t repair itself and you are at the mercy of the individual with the drill.

I believe there are some decent conscientious dentists who genuinely care about their patients and more importantly with sufficient skill to deal with the complex nature of teeth but I would say a huge percentage are not capable of doing their jobs and it is no wonder people are scared of going to the dentist ...if the dentist falls into this huge percentage of incompetent idiots masquerading as a dentist the fear is completely justified.

I went to a private dentist with an apparently decent reputation due to impacted wisdom teeth and had most of my teeth damaged/destroyed by dentist after dentist compounding the errors of the preceding ones ...all of these dentists were at private clinics and my only experience of an NHS dentist was what appeared to be a teenager who told me (in 2008) she doesnt know where to begin and advised I go to see a "specialist" at a dental hospital...... it`s a truly shocking state of affairs

 

[jblack000]

all i can say is WOW, i have had issues with my teeth but they have been nothing compared to what you have gone through.

you have had it bad and you have come through it, it gives me hope for when i get my extractions that things will not be as bad as what i think they might be.

in my eyes you are a trooper.

 

[Daniel33]

Thanks, hopefully I`m through the worst as it has almost finished me off over the last 5 years.

 

[PacerguyDon]

Wow!!!
I'm just appaled that you have had to go through all that you have. It is so sad to read the tales of horror thst the butchers have caused your teeth.
I do hope that your troubles are behind you and that going forward you may have all good experiences with your dental visits.