• Dental Phobia Support

    Welcome! This is an online support group for anyone who is has a severe fear of the dentist or dental treatment. Please note that this is NOT a general dental problems or health anxiety forum! You can find a list of them here.

    Register now to access all the features of the forum.

My ongoing crown nightmare

D

DoomedSince

Junior member
Joined
Jan 22, 2018
Messages
2
My dental nightmare started in June 2017.

6 years ago I fell on icy stairs and chipped two front teeth in half. My dentist at that time filled the teeth and it looked perfect but she informed me i may need a root canal in the future as the teeth may die.

Fast forward to June 2017. The chipped teeth have turned dark so I went to see a new dentist (cosmetic dentist). We learned in addition to needing 2 root canals and 2 crowns, I need to remove all my wisdom teeth. So I did. All was fine. We later did the root canals, all was fine (except my bill is getting high). We began the crown process about a month or so later. The cosmetic dentist originally told me her associate would do the root canal and she would do the crown (since thats her expertise). When i went in for the crown appointment it was the dentist who did my root canal that was going to do my crown as well. I didnt think much of it, i didnt understand how complicated the crown process could be.

When the two crowns arrived, the dentist let me inspect it in a mirror and one looked fine but one looked slightly blue/grayish. The dentist and dental assistant repeatedly said it looked great so I thought maybe it IS fine. Maybe i am crazy and this is how it should look.

Over the next while it bothered me more and more. The one crown was visibly darker and my friends and family noticed too. I thought I was stuck with it. I didnt know crowns could be removed till I had a conversation with a friend who said hes changed his crown due to colour differences too. In september I went for a cleaning and informed the cosmetic dentist I was unhappy with the single tooth. She agreed that it was not a good result and said she would talk to the dentist who did it to see if he would redo it. She suspected the wrong material was used (if I had a dark tooth underneath, which I did) She also said he was close to retirement so he doesn’t work as much.

The dentist agreed to redo the crown at no extra charge. Great. When I went in to take the crown off, he noticed the tooth under was very dark. And he admitted the lab that makes the crown wouldnt have known to use a different material because they didnt see my dark tooth underneath (he should have sent photos or informed them). Sounds simple to fix. We took impressions of my teeth and sent it to the lab to have them redo it with Zirconium material (zirconium blocks out the dark tooth underneath from showing, it is very opaque). By the time we got the final crown, I had gone back and forth about 5 times to the dentist and lab to get the right shade as they kept making the crown too dark or too white, it was not aesthetically appealing considering its my front tooth!

Finally (2-3 months later, in December), the crown was just the right shade. But this time another dentist was going to permanently cement it in. We spent lots of time shaping the tooth and correcting the bite cause the lab has not made any effort to fit and shape the tooth to match my neighboring teeth.

I get in my car, i look in the mirror. The opaque zirconium material stands out awfully. In natural light, it doesnt reflect light the same way my teeth do, so it stands out obviously. I felt like I was going to have a panic attack after all that work and time. I went home and decided to let myself get used to it and accept the result. When i would eat food though, it would get stuck around the new crown, so I called the dentist to see if that was normal. The cosmetic dentist helped me this time. She took xrays and saw that the crown was not sealed properly, so it could lead to future decay and medical issues. The crown had to be redone again. Till the next appointment, i was loving this crown. The shade and colour were great. And the opaque material didn’t stand out unless i smile big in the sun. I accepted the trade off though because it looked great indoors and most of the time.

January 2018, the cosmetic dentist is finally redoing the crown. Shes using her preferred lab (and wow after visiting them, they are a lot better than the lab the other dentist used). This time this dentist sent photos of my teeth to the lab and she picked the shades herself so that i wouldnt have to drive to their office. The crown came back and it is much more aesthetically pleasing than the others, just a tad too dark and she shape was a little too short for my liking. So i went to the lab 2 days later and spent 4 hours there testing the new crown and then trying to communicate with the technician how I want the shape to be (I didnt like his original taste). It was done hooray!. Since this was on a Friday and my appointment to have it cemented in was on a Saturday, they gave the crown to me to take to the dentist the next day.

I go to the dentist, im waiting in the reception area. The dentist asks me to try the crown on. I take it out of its case, i take a look and notice something odd about it. It looked like one part had chipped a little. The dentist asked if I dropped it and I said no. I said I never noticed that before. Me and the receptionist thought it might be more apparent in different lighting. So as im looking at this chip, I accidentally drop the crown on the tile floor. The crown chips more, and there is a visible crack.

I panick. I cry. I dont know why this keeps happening to me. The dentist says she cant redo the crown, she and the lab spent too much time on my case. I said ‘I wouldnt be here if it wasnt for the other dentists being negligent!’ . She says they were not negligent and to only consider this time and forget the other times. How can you forget the other times? Im here today because of THOSE times the other dentists didnt properly perform their work.

The dentist walked off. The receptionist was at least comforting. She said wait till Tuesday when this settles and is more calm. We will see what the lab says about redoing it. There may be a fee.

Todays Monday. ive been anxious and stressed about this for so long. i just want it to be over. But I payed a lot for this crown originally and dont think I should be paying any more as were only in this situation since the last dentist cemented in my crown wrong.

I dont know what to think at this point. I thought about changing dentists but I dont want to pay for this again... im a student and I dont work.

Should I ask for a full refund and switch dentists? Should I pay the lab for the crown to be redone? Should the dentist be paying for this?

I only am considering staying at this dentist because she (cosmetic dentist) is very good. Its just dumb that she got her associates to do the crown work when she should have in the first place.
 
That doesn't sound fun. I'd be afraid to keep having work done on the tooth because you might end up shortening the life of the tooth. I'd try for a refund or something though.

Also I've never been asked to try a crown on. The dentist does it. Probably for this very reason. :(
 
Back
Top