bad filling - did I get a bad dentist?

[jacxie]

I recently decided to go to the dentist for the first time in 5 years. I was terrified to go, but thought I had found a good dentist. It turned out that I had 2 cavities, which wasn't a surprise. But after she finished filling the second one, she started frantically trying to do something to it. I was already terrified and at that point she told me that the filling "wasn't right" and that she needed to drill it out and re-do it. I just wanted to get it over with so I just sat there and let her finish it without asking any questions.
At this point I am afraid to go back to her. My question is, is there any explanation for this happening? Is she a bad dentist? Or was I just unlucky?
Thanks for reading.

 

[Zzzdentist]

Was it a silver mercury filling that was placed?  This is just a guess, but I wonder if it was a two or more surface silver mercury filling that was placed which during the carving and shaping process accidentally chipped a marginal ridge or cuspal form necessitating a complete removal and replacement.

As silver mercury amalgam begins to set, it starts to harden up and becomes a little on the brittle side.  When the dentist carves the desired shape to match what they think the tooth should look like, it might become too hard too quickly.  If the marginal area or other area was not condensed with enough pressure or even with enough pressure, it might be weak during the setting phase and could chip off accidentally as it's being carved.

This might lead to the "Oh oh, darn, I'm going to be late for my golf T-off time" expression on the dentist's face.  If this is what happened, rest assured that the dentist did the right thing by removing it all and recondensing a new mix.  Simply packing newly triturated amalgam onto brittle almost set amalgam leads to failure later on as the two don't bind that well.  It takes just a few minutes to remove and repack a filling once the preparation is done, but it does add time to the appointment.

Dentists have tight schedules so say you have 1 hour to do the fillings.  The next patient, Mrs. Jones, is waiting in the reception room for her appointment in ten minutes.  Something goes awry that needs 10-15 more minutes.  That puts everything behind a bit unless you can catch up somehow.  It's all about pressure.  You're working in a confined space and not in the most comfortable position.  People are waiting to be seen.  The procedure, athough not difficult, can be technically demanding if done right.  Things can and do go wrong while you're under the clock.  You've got a nervous patient in the chair, and you don't want to freak them out by saying something's accidentally broken and needs to be redone so you say "something's not right so I'm just going to redo it" which sounds better.

What was that phrase in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?  Oh yeah, "Don't Panic."

EDIT:  Another common thing with silver fillings is when the dentist gets the patient to bite so they can adjust the height of the filling.  Patient is numb so they bite too hard and crack off a piece of the marginal ridge which was left a little high.  Whoops.  Gotta remove and pack it.

With composite fillings this sort of thing doesn't generally happen, but you can accidentally gouge into it too deep or ditch something while finishing so that might need redoing.

 

[Gordon]

These things always happened to me when I had a hot date scheduled. Obviously before I got married

Once when I was a student the patient fractured my nice new amalgam 3 times in a row. I didn't get a second date with that evening's young lady

 

[Zzzdentist]

Before you got married.... riiiight....   Nudge nudge  Say no more, say no more.

Welcome back from your trip.  I think the sheep herding story sounded so much better though.  

I hope you and Pars don't mind the ol' Zzzdentist crowding in on your territory.  I'm just here to right some dental wrongs, defend the weak enamel of the masses, and fight off acute periodontal attacks.