• Dental Phobia Support

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I’ve learned to get a second opinion!

K

klol

Member
Joined
Jun 13, 2019
Messages
35
Location
Iowa
For about a month I’ve been dealing with intense jaw pain, discomfort with bite, and other pains I couldn’t quite place that have had me taking ibuprofen around the clock, anxiety pills during the day and muscle relaxants at night. It all started after having 3 fillings done at the end of May. The dentist continued to insist everything was fine, adjusted the fillings a few times, told me to wait the pain out (even though it was constant and impossible to ignore even with ibuprofen). I went to an orthodontist yesterday to see if braces could potentially help with alignment, he said “I don’t think your alignment is bad at all, and your teeth don’t need braces unless you want them cosmetically. However, I would get a second opinion on your dental work, because you told me you were done with it but I see at least 2 caries with my eyes.” So I go back to my dentist, a little frantic, reporting what I was told. My dentist basically said “well, there are a few small cavities that we don’t need to do yet, but we would like to do crowns on 3 teeth for now and 2 more in the future” (thousands of dollars worth) and said it was because the fillings would be too big. None of that made sense to me. So this morning I go to a dentist with high remarks (and prices- worth it) who specializes in crowns. He looks around, says I need a root canal on one old crown which they’ll do through the crown, and that my old dentist missed two (obvious to this dentist) cracked fillings on molars on the side of my jaw that was REALLY killing all the time. One of those molars had been worked on last month by my old dentist and he still didn’t do anything about it! Turns out, these fillings had a good amount of decay under them and that combined with the other tooth needing the root canal were likely the cause of all my pain, not even TMJ like I’d been so sure it was. My new dentist did those fillings on the spot which has already helped the pain significantly, has me scheduled with an endodontist for a root canal, and 1 more filling that he’d like to do. I contacted my prior dental office to tell them, and they immediately responded with “send over your paperwork and treatment and we’ll refund you what you’ve paid”. It’s crazy that a dentist with a “good” reputation could miss so much that both an orthodontist and other dentist could see within 1 minute of looking. I’ll be all fixed up and good to go for under $500 after insurance and no crowns. Thanks to everyone on here who’s helped calm and during this and offered great advice and personal experience. My advice to return is to get more than one consult! Being in a dentist chair is the most vulnerable place for most of us....it’s scary to think of being subjected to unnecessary treatments and not fixing what the actual issue is!
 
And a special thanks to Dr. Daniel who took the time out of his day to speak with me about my pain and to help me learn to address and describe it properly. This forum really is a lifesaver for people with dental fear and anxiety. I don’t know how I would’ve made it this past month without this space!
 
Klol

So glad you went and got a second opinion and it ended up working so much better!! really glad to hear!!
 
Update- had root canal done yesterday! My jaw muscles are still very achy and my teeth that got the new fillings are still sensitive which makes me nervous, I’m hoping there’s not something else wrong there. I’m hoping it’s just normal and the jaw muscles take more than a day or two to feel good again. But otherwise, I go back in a week to have my permanent filling placed on the molar I had the root canal done for. I’m hoping this is it!
 
Sorry to hear of your problems but isn't "I contacted my prior dental office to tell them, and they immediately responded with “send over your paperwork and treatment and we’ll refund you what you’ve paid”. a nice response to help you become whole.
 
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