Can an oral surgeon be a general dentist!?

[nikki06]

Please bare with me, I'll try to make this as simple as possible.

I got referred to an oral surgeon back in Jan because the dentist at the time couldn't numb me for an extraction.

While my referral was going through I decided it was pointless travelling the miles to the original dentist if she couldn't numb me.. So I thought I may as well join as a new patient at the practise where my referral would be at. At the referral/current practise I saw a dentist for the initial checkup etc, and she explained that as I was in the middle of the referral she would do the new patient paperwork and X-rays etc, but agreed that any immediate treatment should be done by the oral surgeon downstairs (I thought we would be able to draw up a full treatment plan in the meantime).

When my referral finally came through, during one of the appointments I asked the oral surgeon "who is to be my dentist now, you? Or mrs x upstairs?" He said "either, it's up to you"

But, whenever I see the dentist upstairs she always wants to refer me to the oral surgeon at the practise.. Yet he seems to want me to see the dentist upstairs and for my last filling he told me to see her instead saying 'the upper teeth are easier to numb so you'll be fine' :/ she managed to numb me for the filling, but it was becoming painful towards the end (I think it's likely she was close to the nerve and I'd not had enough anaesthetic, or as usual it wasn't put in quite the right place - my face has swollen in the past from LA injections)


So, can the oral surgeon actually be my dentist or not!??

I'm just back where I was in January if he/the oral surgeon cannot be my dentist, because every time I need any treatment I'll need referring and that obv takes ages!

I'm so confused :/ Clearly if an oral surgeon only deals with referrals then I need to keep looking for a general dentist that can numb me fully?

 

[comfortdentist]

In general a specialist does only specialty work. This is even true in South Florida's cutthroat environment. Why is that? Because none of this is easy to do so if you aren't doing it regularly then most likely you can't do it well.

 

[nikki06]

Thank you for your reply.

Just one more question though please, if that's alright... Does struggling to get numb mean I need to see a specialist?

From 2010:
One dentist failed to numb me entirely and I still felt pain.
A private dentist managed to numb me on a 2nd appointment (on the first appointment he failed completely. Both times however, my face swelled up pretty badly).
The next dentist failed to numb me at all (hence the referral to the O.S)
The oral surgeon - no problems at all.
The other dentist at my current practise managed to numb me but I still felt slight pain (enough to wince).

Up until 2010 I had no problems. :/

Obviously I'd like to see a general dentist rather than need referrals all the time, so I don't know if I need to keep looking for the right dentist or accept my bad luck! I appreciate you can't tell properly without seeing me, but I wonder if you have any suggestions based on experience.

Thanks again,
Nikki.