H
Housefish
Junior member
- Joined
- Apr 22, 2011
- Messages
- 1
About four weeks ago I had a very very bad experience at the dentist. I recently moved to a new city, so I was not very familiar with the dentist I was seeing. I had seen him once in early January. He scheduled me for a filling on tooth #19 for mid-February. I arrived at the office in February only to find out that the dentist was gone, and his office forgot to call to tell me about the cancellation. Given my anxiety about dentists, this didn't make me particularly happy, but I tried to be polite to the office staff. The soonest they were able to reschedule me was the end of March.
The dentist knew I was nervous when I came back in March, so he left my husband, who had come with me, and I alone in the exam room while I filled out paperwork. Reading through the consent forms, I broke out into an all out panic attack. The dentist quickly grabbed the paperwork away from me before I finished signing the pages, booted my husband out of the room, and jabbed the anesthetic needle into my gums. I was not offered any nitrous (though found out after the fact that the office did have it). Ten minutes later, he came back and started drilling. Immediately, my tooth felt hot and I could feel a slight pain. I raised my hand, and fortunately, he stopped drilling and gave me another shot. He left for another ten minutes. When he returned, again, he started drilling, and again, the pain hit. This time he numbed my entire mouth (not just the left side) and left for twenty minutes.
I was so scared I had tears running down my face when he returned again. I asked if my husband could come back in, and the dentist said he would just be in the way. At least the third time, he was able to do the drilling without causing any pain. I tried to calm myself down, but my entire body was shaking. The dentist tried asking me gently to calm down, and I would have if I could have, but I just felt worse and worse. Finally, he grabbed my arm and yelled that I had to calm down because he couldn't concentrate. Yelling at me did little to help me feel more relaxed. He filled the filling and cured it. He left several times during the process to see other patients. At the end, he tried to do a bite test, but I was having difficulty biting down because I could not feel my teeth. In frustration, he left again to go see another patient.
When he finally returned, the dentist told me that I was the most difficult patient he had had in over a year. He said that I had made him so nervous that he wasn't able to fix my tooth without making mistakes. He said that, while drilling, he had accidently broken a cusp and that there was now a 1mm gap between my two back teeth. I asked if my teeth would just shift to fill in the gap. He said this was very unlikely and that I would have to floss very carefully from then on to avoid getting periodontal disease. He said he had damaged the tooth so much that, if he removed the filling and tried to redo it, my tooth would probably break in half.
After he left, the dental assistant confessed that the dentist had also drilled into the lingual side of my tooth after he finished the scheduled filling. She said I had some staining that he thought was a cavity. As it turned out, there was no decay, but unfortunately, she said, the extra drilling had further weakened the tooth.
The dentist told me never to come back without a prescription for Valium from another doctor. I do not have health insurance and can not afford to see a physician.
That evening, after getting the filling, I gradually regained sensation in my face but was so upset that I had very little appetite. I noticed a very slight cold sensitivity. I read on the Internet that cold sensitivity is not uncommon with composite fillings. When I woke up the next morning, the cold sensitivity was gone, and it has not returned since.
My husband left that morning (the day after the dentist) for a two week business trip. I was left alone without transportation. At first I didn't notice any pain, but soon realized that I had occasional sharp pain when chewing. (I should mention that I had absolutely NO pain prior to going to the dentist to have the filling done). The only time I experienced this pain was while chewing hard cereal (meat, cooked vegetables, and the like were fine). Gradually, the tooth became more sensitive to pressure. Four days later, I could not even chew gum without pain in my tooth. At five days, I called my husband crying, begging him to come home because even lightly brushing the side of my tooth with my tongue hurt!
My husband could not make it back for another nine days, so I started a strict regimen of ibuprofen and salt water rinses, which helped quite a bit. I ate only soup for three days and was extra careful to try to keep my tongue away from the affected molar. The pain quickly subsided as long as I didn't touch the tooth too much. Brushing with an electric toothbrush was excruciating, and the pain with chewing continued. My husband called the dentist's office to let them know about the pain I was experiencing. The dentist would not talk to him, and has, to this day, refuses to return his phone calls.
Two weeks later, my husband returned home and took me to a different dentist to find out why I still had minor residual pain on biting. Since I've had no hot or cold sensitivity since the day of the appointment, and since no irregularities showed up on the X-rays, dentist #2 determined it was unlikely that the tooth was infected. I thought my symptoms sounded like a fractured tooth. Dentist #2 did several bite tests and determined the problem involved on of the mesial cusps. This is odd, considering most of the work that had been previously done involved the distal portion on the tooth. The filling was very shallow in the mesial portion of the tooth. Surprisingly, the dentist said that while he could not entirely rule out a fractured cusp, he did NOT think I had a crack in my tooth. Instead, he thought Dentist #1 had used too much acid etching and the filling was not properly bonded. He did agree with Dentist #1 in that the tooth had been too damaged to redo the filling. He scheduled me for a crown preparation without root canal therapy.
Well, now another two weeks has passed. I am scheduled to have the crown done next week. Oddly, though, in the past two weeks, my tooth seems to have slowly gotten better. I will admit that I continued for several days to avoid chewing on the left side of my mouth. Since I only had pain while chewing and was no longer chewing with that tooth, I figured that lack of pain was simply a result of not using the tooth. However, I began notice a funny thing while brushing my teeth: Two weeks ago I had to turn off my electric toothbrush to avoid sharp pains while brushing. I had to brush very carefully to keep the bristles away from the occlusal surface of the tooth. As the days went on, I found that I could begin brushing again, first gently with the vibration off, and now I can brush regularly... even vigorously all surfaces of the tooth with the vibration on without ANY pain at all! Over the past few days, it's become easier to eat on that side, and today I have been carefully testing the tooth by chewing croutons and pita chips, and so far it's not hurting me. These kinds of foods would have been absolutely unbearable to eat with that tooth a few weeks ago!
I called Dentist #2 back today and asked if he was absolutely sure that I need a crown (I'm too young for a crown. I've only had two fillings in my life, and I want to keep as much of my remaining tooth structure as possible.). His assistant said that the dentist and his associate could see on the intraoral pictures that the tooth is cracked and needs to be crowned right away. This seems odd since the dentist had previously told me that he did not think the tooth was cracked.
Is it possible for the pain of a cracked tooth to go away? I suppose it's possible that the nerve has died, but my intuition tells me that this is not the case. For one thing, I haven't had any unprovoked pain, no temperature sensitivity, and two weeks ago there were no signs of infection. Assuming the tooth is still vital, have you ever heard of a case of a painful cracked tooth that just stops hurting? What else could possibly be going on with my tooth? Is there any possibility that my tooth will not need a crown just yet? I've heard that better crown materials will be making their debut later this year, and would like to wait a few months for the monolithic ceramics so I can avoid a porcelain fused to metal crown, which requires a whole lot of tooth reduction and is quickly becoming the dinosaur of tooth restorations, if possible.
The dentist knew I was nervous when I came back in March, so he left my husband, who had come with me, and I alone in the exam room while I filled out paperwork. Reading through the consent forms, I broke out into an all out panic attack. The dentist quickly grabbed the paperwork away from me before I finished signing the pages, booted my husband out of the room, and jabbed the anesthetic needle into my gums. I was not offered any nitrous (though found out after the fact that the office did have it). Ten minutes later, he came back and started drilling. Immediately, my tooth felt hot and I could feel a slight pain. I raised my hand, and fortunately, he stopped drilling and gave me another shot. He left for another ten minutes. When he returned, again, he started drilling, and again, the pain hit. This time he numbed my entire mouth (not just the left side) and left for twenty minutes.
I was so scared I had tears running down my face when he returned again. I asked if my husband could come back in, and the dentist said he would just be in the way. At least the third time, he was able to do the drilling without causing any pain. I tried to calm myself down, but my entire body was shaking. The dentist tried asking me gently to calm down, and I would have if I could have, but I just felt worse and worse. Finally, he grabbed my arm and yelled that I had to calm down because he couldn't concentrate. Yelling at me did little to help me feel more relaxed. He filled the filling and cured it. He left several times during the process to see other patients. At the end, he tried to do a bite test, but I was having difficulty biting down because I could not feel my teeth. In frustration, he left again to go see another patient.
When he finally returned, the dentist told me that I was the most difficult patient he had had in over a year. He said that I had made him so nervous that he wasn't able to fix my tooth without making mistakes. He said that, while drilling, he had accidently broken a cusp and that there was now a 1mm gap between my two back teeth. I asked if my teeth would just shift to fill in the gap. He said this was very unlikely and that I would have to floss very carefully from then on to avoid getting periodontal disease. He said he had damaged the tooth so much that, if he removed the filling and tried to redo it, my tooth would probably break in half.
After he left, the dental assistant confessed that the dentist had also drilled into the lingual side of my tooth after he finished the scheduled filling. She said I had some staining that he thought was a cavity. As it turned out, there was no decay, but unfortunately, she said, the extra drilling had further weakened the tooth.
The dentist told me never to come back without a prescription for Valium from another doctor. I do not have health insurance and can not afford to see a physician.
That evening, after getting the filling, I gradually regained sensation in my face but was so upset that I had very little appetite. I noticed a very slight cold sensitivity. I read on the Internet that cold sensitivity is not uncommon with composite fillings. When I woke up the next morning, the cold sensitivity was gone, and it has not returned since.
My husband left that morning (the day after the dentist) for a two week business trip. I was left alone without transportation. At first I didn't notice any pain, but soon realized that I had occasional sharp pain when chewing. (I should mention that I had absolutely NO pain prior to going to the dentist to have the filling done). The only time I experienced this pain was while chewing hard cereal (meat, cooked vegetables, and the like were fine). Gradually, the tooth became more sensitive to pressure. Four days later, I could not even chew gum without pain in my tooth. At five days, I called my husband crying, begging him to come home because even lightly brushing the side of my tooth with my tongue hurt!
My husband could not make it back for another nine days, so I started a strict regimen of ibuprofen and salt water rinses, which helped quite a bit. I ate only soup for three days and was extra careful to try to keep my tongue away from the affected molar. The pain quickly subsided as long as I didn't touch the tooth too much. Brushing with an electric toothbrush was excruciating, and the pain with chewing continued. My husband called the dentist's office to let them know about the pain I was experiencing. The dentist would not talk to him, and has, to this day, refuses to return his phone calls.
Two weeks later, my husband returned home and took me to a different dentist to find out why I still had minor residual pain on biting. Since I've had no hot or cold sensitivity since the day of the appointment, and since no irregularities showed up on the X-rays, dentist #2 determined it was unlikely that the tooth was infected. I thought my symptoms sounded like a fractured tooth. Dentist #2 did several bite tests and determined the problem involved on of the mesial cusps. This is odd, considering most of the work that had been previously done involved the distal portion on the tooth. The filling was very shallow in the mesial portion of the tooth. Surprisingly, the dentist said that while he could not entirely rule out a fractured cusp, he did NOT think I had a crack in my tooth. Instead, he thought Dentist #1 had used too much acid etching and the filling was not properly bonded. He did agree with Dentist #1 in that the tooth had been too damaged to redo the filling. He scheduled me for a crown preparation without root canal therapy.
Well, now another two weeks has passed. I am scheduled to have the crown done next week. Oddly, though, in the past two weeks, my tooth seems to have slowly gotten better. I will admit that I continued for several days to avoid chewing on the left side of my mouth. Since I only had pain while chewing and was no longer chewing with that tooth, I figured that lack of pain was simply a result of not using the tooth. However, I began notice a funny thing while brushing my teeth: Two weeks ago I had to turn off my electric toothbrush to avoid sharp pains while brushing. I had to brush very carefully to keep the bristles away from the occlusal surface of the tooth. As the days went on, I found that I could begin brushing again, first gently with the vibration off, and now I can brush regularly... even vigorously all surfaces of the tooth with the vibration on without ANY pain at all! Over the past few days, it's become easier to eat on that side, and today I have been carefully testing the tooth by chewing croutons and pita chips, and so far it's not hurting me. These kinds of foods would have been absolutely unbearable to eat with that tooth a few weeks ago!
I called Dentist #2 back today and asked if he was absolutely sure that I need a crown (I'm too young for a crown. I've only had two fillings in my life, and I want to keep as much of my remaining tooth structure as possible.). His assistant said that the dentist and his associate could see on the intraoral pictures that the tooth is cracked and needs to be crowned right away. This seems odd since the dentist had previously told me that he did not think the tooth was cracked.
Is it possible for the pain of a cracked tooth to go away? I suppose it's possible that the nerve has died, but my intuition tells me that this is not the case. For one thing, I haven't had any unprovoked pain, no temperature sensitivity, and two weeks ago there were no signs of infection. Assuming the tooth is still vital, have you ever heard of a case of a painful cracked tooth that just stops hurting? What else could possibly be going on with my tooth? Is there any possibility that my tooth will not need a crown just yet? I've heard that better crown materials will be making their debut later this year, and would like to wait a few months for the monolithic ceramics so I can avoid a porcelain fused to metal crown, which requires a whole lot of tooth reduction and is quickly becoming the dinosaur of tooth restorations, if possible.
![[smiley=ashamed.gif]](/forum/styles/default/xenforo/smilies/dfcsmilies/ashamed.gif "Ashamed [smiley=ashamed.gif]")
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