L
LWM
Junior member
- Joined
- Sep 30, 2016
- Messages
- 1
I suppose this is a vent more than anything. This is pretty long winded and a bit rant-filled, so I apologize in advance.
When I was little, our family dentist had all my molars drilled and filled before I hit high school. He used metal fillings, then not too long after, despite not feeling any pain in my molars or noticing any real wear, he convinced my mother they needed replacement. He removed the fillings, drilled out more material and installed white fillings, in two he drilled into my teeth and installed titanium studs. It was not even a month before the walls of those two molars began to crumble as there was almost no tooth material left. A few years later while eating some cheese the filling and titanium pegs lifted out and as I chewed, I bit back down on the filling and broke the remaining tooth. We discovered he had been getting dragged into court multiple times over unnecessary work. He closed up shop and retired.
At this point, I had a fear developed of my family dentist as his work coming apart was causing me an incredible amount of pain and it was clear to me that it was likely never needed. I stopped going in to see dentists and went years with a shattered tooth and half-finished work. Over those years, other fillings fell apart and my wisdom teeth grew in, thankfully, they grew in straight. I had no issues for a while then one day, while eating a hamburger, I bit into a chunk of bone that landed square between my front teeth, cracking them both down the center. The inside of each tooth was broken out leaving me with a huge gap destroying my smile.
I decided I couldn't fix it myself obviously, so I went in to see a dentist. right off the bat, he pulled that broken molar as by this time it was just a mess and had started giving me pain. he then went around my mouth removing the other broken fillings and replaced them with more fillings. Between visits, which were at least once a week, one of the new fillings fell out. Underneath was a bunch of cotton. When I asked about it, he informed me that the filling was temporary until he could crown the tooth which was not previously discussed. He re-filled the tooth with another white filling. Despite that issue, I continued to go in, burning through $4400 in benefits and out of pocket over a six month period. I was told that I had decay in some areas and needed fillings throughout my mouth, and went in a couple times a month for work. It was now time to fix my front teeth.
It was decided he was going to crown them both. The problem was, there was almost no exposed tooth left because of the way they had cracked, so I had to go in for gum surgery. It was a painful process to move my gum line up, but afterwards, I had my smile back. I had titanium cores installed into the remaining tooth and perfect looking porcelain crowns installed over them a week later. I paid for the front teeth entirely out of pocket since my benefits had long run dry. I continued to pop in a couple times a month, confident in my dentist's abilities and paying entirely out of pocket. After a few more visits, I had no more money to budget to dental work until my benefits kicked back in, meaning it would be four months until my next visit. I still had a wisdom tooth that had cracked I needed pulled and was going to have a new molar implanted to replace my missing molar. Other than that I was all smiles, and proud that I had overcome my fear and gotten my face back to normal.
A week later, one of the teeth he had filled began to turn very dark. My fears were already starting to return. Before I even had time to contemplate things, one of my molars cracked, then another, then another. Within a month of my last visit, four molars had broken, a tooth had died and become black and two teeth that I had root canals performed on, were aching again. I have given up, over a short amount of time every spot he worked on was falling apart. My fears have evolved to a full on phobia. I didn't know what to do then, I still don't, I'm confused, angry, sad and am becoming incredibly depressed that things are going this way. The few teeth that still haven't been touched by a dentist are just fine and have never given me issues. My upper lateral incisors, first molars, lower central/lateral incisors, cuspid, first bicuspid are all doing just fine, they are the only teeth no dentist has ever touched. So I do what I can for the rest, and try to avoid chewing hard, biting gummy things, etc. I eat as slowly as a 90 year old. Despite my best efforts to be gentle, all his work has failed and come apart. Teeth where he had to "grind to get them a bit smoother" have been extremely cold sensitive since. Earlier this month another tooth he filled broke in half. Looking at the tooth, the filling was hollow inside.
Today, I bit into a sandwich for lunch. One of my front teeth broke off. Not the porcelain, and it wasn't the dental adhesive failing, the titanium core broke. This work is five years old. For some reason, the core which was almost the entire width of my front tooth, shrinks down to a tiny 1mm diameter section before flaring back out to where it was inserted into the root. It reminds my of the parts runners used for model cars, where there is only a sliver of material you snap the part free, designed to break easily. Why was this designed with an obvious weak point? I've lost my smile again, I look like a damned jack'o'lantern again. I've always been a self-conscious guy so I see people gaze move down when I smile. People must assume I've never seen a toothbrush in my life and I can't say I blame them.
I am at the point I just want to have everything removed and wear plates like my grandparents did in their 40's. Not that it's relevant, but this year has been the worst year of my life. I lost my mom to a lung disease. I also lost my Dad a few months later on after an extremely fast moving cancer tore though him and killed him in under six months. I'm still dealing with that, but am required to work long hours to cover the costs that were left behind so sorting through their lives has been slow-going and the closure isn't in sight. I am so depressed and angry I find myself shaking at times, but I have to hide it because I'm too proud to let anyone see me like this. I'm supposed to be the rock, level headed and keep things calm in the family. In the grand scheme of things I'm sitting pretty. I live in Canada, I have work, and I'm healthy, so I feel bad complaining about my minor hardships.
What am I supposed to do? Try another dentist? What is this one going to do? Another round of fix the last guy's thousand dollar duct tape and bubblegum fix? Even the major work, which involved three different offices, has now failed. How in my right mind can I trust this industry where I spend thousands for someone to do this work, and again and again, it fails almost immediately? I used to have a fear of a particular dentist. After putting my trust in another one, only to have this level of failure, I am scared to death of the damage the next one might cause. I had similar issues with my vehicles and repair shops. In that case, I have learned to fix my own car, everything from oil changes to pulling the transmission I can handle on my own now. I do not have that option with this. I'll have to start moving my retirement age forward to do anything at this point. Relying on my benefits provided at my job at this point would mean years before this is fixed and I don't think my natural teeth will still exist that long at this rate.
When I was little, our family dentist had all my molars drilled and filled before I hit high school. He used metal fillings, then not too long after, despite not feeling any pain in my molars or noticing any real wear, he convinced my mother they needed replacement. He removed the fillings, drilled out more material and installed white fillings, in two he drilled into my teeth and installed titanium studs. It was not even a month before the walls of those two molars began to crumble as there was almost no tooth material left. A few years later while eating some cheese the filling and titanium pegs lifted out and as I chewed, I bit back down on the filling and broke the remaining tooth. We discovered he had been getting dragged into court multiple times over unnecessary work. He closed up shop and retired.
At this point, I had a fear developed of my family dentist as his work coming apart was causing me an incredible amount of pain and it was clear to me that it was likely never needed. I stopped going in to see dentists and went years with a shattered tooth and half-finished work. Over those years, other fillings fell apart and my wisdom teeth grew in, thankfully, they grew in straight. I had no issues for a while then one day, while eating a hamburger, I bit into a chunk of bone that landed square between my front teeth, cracking them both down the center. The inside of each tooth was broken out leaving me with a huge gap destroying my smile.
I decided I couldn't fix it myself obviously, so I went in to see a dentist. right off the bat, he pulled that broken molar as by this time it was just a mess and had started giving me pain. he then went around my mouth removing the other broken fillings and replaced them with more fillings. Between visits, which were at least once a week, one of the new fillings fell out. Underneath was a bunch of cotton. When I asked about it, he informed me that the filling was temporary until he could crown the tooth which was not previously discussed. He re-filled the tooth with another white filling. Despite that issue, I continued to go in, burning through $4400 in benefits and out of pocket over a six month period. I was told that I had decay in some areas and needed fillings throughout my mouth, and went in a couple times a month for work. It was now time to fix my front teeth.
It was decided he was going to crown them both. The problem was, there was almost no exposed tooth left because of the way they had cracked, so I had to go in for gum surgery. It was a painful process to move my gum line up, but afterwards, I had my smile back. I had titanium cores installed into the remaining tooth and perfect looking porcelain crowns installed over them a week later. I paid for the front teeth entirely out of pocket since my benefits had long run dry. I continued to pop in a couple times a month, confident in my dentist's abilities and paying entirely out of pocket. After a few more visits, I had no more money to budget to dental work until my benefits kicked back in, meaning it would be four months until my next visit. I still had a wisdom tooth that had cracked I needed pulled and was going to have a new molar implanted to replace my missing molar. Other than that I was all smiles, and proud that I had overcome my fear and gotten my face back to normal.
A week later, one of the teeth he had filled began to turn very dark. My fears were already starting to return. Before I even had time to contemplate things, one of my molars cracked, then another, then another. Within a month of my last visit, four molars had broken, a tooth had died and become black and two teeth that I had root canals performed on, were aching again. I have given up, over a short amount of time every spot he worked on was falling apart. My fears have evolved to a full on phobia. I didn't know what to do then, I still don't, I'm confused, angry, sad and am becoming incredibly depressed that things are going this way. The few teeth that still haven't been touched by a dentist are just fine and have never given me issues. My upper lateral incisors, first molars, lower central/lateral incisors, cuspid, first bicuspid are all doing just fine, they are the only teeth no dentist has ever touched. So I do what I can for the rest, and try to avoid chewing hard, biting gummy things, etc. I eat as slowly as a 90 year old. Despite my best efforts to be gentle, all his work has failed and come apart. Teeth where he had to "grind to get them a bit smoother" have been extremely cold sensitive since. Earlier this month another tooth he filled broke in half. Looking at the tooth, the filling was hollow inside.
Today, I bit into a sandwich for lunch. One of my front teeth broke off. Not the porcelain, and it wasn't the dental adhesive failing, the titanium core broke. This work is five years old. For some reason, the core which was almost the entire width of my front tooth, shrinks down to a tiny 1mm diameter section before flaring back out to where it was inserted into the root. It reminds my of the parts runners used for model cars, where there is only a sliver of material you snap the part free, designed to break easily. Why was this designed with an obvious weak point? I've lost my smile again, I look like a damned jack'o'lantern again. I've always been a self-conscious guy so I see people gaze move down when I smile. People must assume I've never seen a toothbrush in my life and I can't say I blame them.
I am at the point I just want to have everything removed and wear plates like my grandparents did in their 40's. Not that it's relevant, but this year has been the worst year of my life. I lost my mom to a lung disease. I also lost my Dad a few months later on after an extremely fast moving cancer tore though him and killed him in under six months. I'm still dealing with that, but am required to work long hours to cover the costs that were left behind so sorting through their lives has been slow-going and the closure isn't in sight. I am so depressed and angry I find myself shaking at times, but I have to hide it because I'm too proud to let anyone see me like this. I'm supposed to be the rock, level headed and keep things calm in the family. In the grand scheme of things I'm sitting pretty. I live in Canada, I have work, and I'm healthy, so I feel bad complaining about my minor hardships.
What am I supposed to do? Try another dentist? What is this one going to do? Another round of fix the last guy's thousand dollar duct tape and bubblegum fix? Even the major work, which involved three different offices, has now failed. How in my right mind can I trust this industry where I spend thousands for someone to do this work, and again and again, it fails almost immediately? I used to have a fear of a particular dentist. After putting my trust in another one, only to have this level of failure, I am scared to death of the damage the next one might cause. I had similar issues with my vehicles and repair shops. In that case, I have learned to fix my own car, everything from oil changes to pulling the transmission I can handle on my own now. I do not have that option with this. I'll have to start moving my retirement age forward to do anything at this point. Relying on my benefits provided at my job at this point would mean years before this is fixed and I don't think my natural teeth will still exist that long at this rate.
