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Can I complain

P

patient

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 7, 2014
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200
Gabriella Ribeiro Truman, 36, who runs a travel agency in New Jersey, has never had a cavity. “I’ve never had any extensive dental work, and I go for a cleaning twice a year,” she said.
About a month and a half ago, however, she went to a see a new dentist. He took some high-resolution pictures of her teeth and enlarged the images on a screen. He pointed to six microcavities, and a possible seventh.
He said that “these could turn into something major,” she said. “Root canals. I could lose my teeth.”
“You feel uncomfortable when you’re put in that position,” she added.
The dentist handed her a quote for $3,500 worth of work. The high figure gave her pause.
“To go from great dental health to something like that?” she said. “I would rather get somebody else to look at them beforehand.”

I have been in this situation myself. It is shocking. I was told I needed two root canals. I do not need them because my current dentist said the previous dentist was mistaken. I think the previous dentist was trying to make money from me. However the same dentist who treats a friend of mine does not suggest any treatment to her because my friend has very good teeth and has not needed a filling for 5 years and has only three filings anyway and thats not because she does not go to the dentist it is because for some reason her teeth do not decay
 
I'm not sure about this.. the difficulty is, that generally every dentist seems to have a different approach in treating teeth, some prefer to watch and treat only at a point where it gets absolutely necessary. Also decay can be overlooked, we had people who go to the dentist regularly, but hadn't had x-rays in a lot of years and then we did x-rays and found a lot of decay in between the teeth. Cleanings and checkups are good, but still nutrition and home care play a role as well.. and still, as you say, there will be dentists suggesting extensive treatment in order to make money so getting a second opinion before any big treatment is the best approach. I am glad you haven't had to go through the root canal treatment.
 
I had one root canal which was needed but the rest was not
 
In general there is a grey area as to when to treat and how best to treat. If I ever get around to it I'll post a couple of examples of this problem. More importantly you should never be pressured into doing something right now. There are rare times when that might be true and even then if you avoid the tooth you still probably have time to get another opinion. In general the treatment should make sense and you should feel comfortable with the rational and plan.
 
In my case I was told that there was a cavity under a crown and the crown would need removing and the tooth looked at and the dentist at the time said she doubted that the tooth could be saved so it would probably need extracting. I was also told by another dentist that one of my back molars needed a root canal because it was infected. When I went to my current dentist he took an xray and said there was no cavity under the crown and no infection in the back molar so no need to do a root canal
 
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