K
Kilaya
Junior member
- Joined
- Jan 11, 2016
- Messages
- 4
Hey there everyone. First post here in the forum, mostly because I am completely torn as to whether I should do this or not! It's been a crazy journey for me, which I might elaborate more on in another subforum later... but today I have this question in mind. Sorry for the long post in advance, I hope you'll all still read it.
A bit of a back story.... Years ago (Nov 2011 in California) I had a cavity in a front upper incisor, the one next to the front ones, on the side closest to the canine which was definitely noticeable. At the time I had no money, no coverage, no cheap way to get it done. So I had to wait... Eventually I got into a government program (Job Corps) which helped me to take care of some issues. Unfortunately, being a government program I had to wait a while longer than I really needed to! Eventually I got a filling for it... looking good, so I thought.... But then, something happened. Somehow the filling was so close to the root that it got infected around December (filling was placed in Sept/Oct) and so I had to have a root canal preformed on it. After that, I really felt nothing, but then I started to feel occasional weird throbbing.
I transfer to a different Job Corps location in central Cal, and I've already become familiar with checking in with a dentist when I move because hell if I want more worse to happen to me. She xrays me and tells me that my root is reinfected because they used an archaic filling for a RCT which was a metal pin, instead of the more common rubber root filling. (Really a great dentist which I could've kept her)
She recommended that I get a crown for it, and I'm thinking "I guess later, when I get a FT job and can afford it" (Really subconsciously putting it off.....)
I graduate from the program and find a new place to live in Oct 2014. And I put off visiting a dentist for a long time, because I only have one option I know of that Denti-Cal (The free CA insurance) accepts, and that's Western Dental.
Previous dentist recommended to stay away from Western Dental, but it's been a YEAR (and a few months) and I need a checkup. As a PT worker, FT college student NOW, I don't have any other insurance. I need to check these things bi-yearly, srsly, or else I'm worried because I have had a lot of work done and don't want to screw it up.
I just had my first exam there last Tuesday.... and it was a bit odd. They took xrays, but didn't show them to me (Gonna ask them to do that this Tuesday), and took pictures of my teeth with a little camera. A bit different than I'm used to, with a normal human to human face to face exam to check for anything missed.
To my surprise, I was told I only needed 3 fillings which were all inbetween teeth (Not too surprising, I still forget to floss Dammit! >.> ((Some people would say to their surprise because they never get cavities, for me it's because I have a bunch lol)) And also a crown on my front incisor, which, well, I knew.
This is where it gets me questioning.... I'm feeling I'm just a part of some protocol. "If a tooth has a RCT, cap it" seems to be peoples mantras. But the dentist I went to *previously* did a really awesome job on just the permanent filling. I never bite with it, because I do have an overbite which allow my front incisors to do their job while ignoring the little ones. The tooth has not lost any color, (Funny enough, the canine to my right looks more dull with white calcium flecks than the RCT one does), and does not have pain. The only thing the slightest confusing is that sometimes I can feel a "pulse" sporadically through it, but no infection was found on the Xrays from Western Dental, or they'd have told me, right? (Is it possible they missed it? If they missed that, could they have missed other things too, like my dull canine, even though the dentist himself scaled it?)
I've been doing a lot of googling lately regarding this topic... As I think I might want to get the cap put on it, but then I think I might *not* want to do that.
I have about 2/3 - 3/5 of natural tooth structure left of this restoration I think. I'm going to double check with them on Tuesday. I'm not sure if that's too little to be left without a crown, or if it's fine that way.
In all honesty, after all the effort I've gone through to keep my front teeth in tact and pretty by brushing/flossing/having composite, I feel like putting a crown on my little tooth there is just like getting an implant, only it's my tooth acting as the post, instead of a screw.
It's like, why even bother with a crown, if it's basically a fake tooth that I'm showing everyone? Seriously. I'd be showing everyone the same thing if I had an implant.
Not to mention, with Western Dental being a brand new place I've gone to, and their reputation on Yelp being less than favorable, I honestly do not have the trust instilled yet to trust them with such an important decision as to
1. Make the tooth look like the original
2. Not cause it to fracture/break while doing the procedure (I read some stories where crowns just cause unneeded pressure on the root canal, along with being filed down already, that they just "snap" off at the base. Needless to say, it terrifies me.)
3. Doing it *right* (keeping all bacteria out with the cement and good fit crown)
Still, I don't want it to break or get reinfected due to *not* having the crown, causing even more issue, because I heard that's common too with large fillings... but is mine large enough to warrant that?
It's all so confusing for a person who just wants to do what's best in her individual circumstance, where I feel like many dentists just see people as another number in a line, a protocol to be followed... So For right now, I'm going to put it off. I'll either tell them I don't have the money for it or that in all honesty I don't trust them with such a delicate procedure due to just meeting last week and having low Yelp reviews.
(Though in all honesty, most of those reviews are based on poor front customer service, long wait times, collections calls to customers needing to pay, and the limited time you see the dentist because they're so busy. Not one was about the quality of work, except one that claimed they found cavities where they later were told by a second opinion that they didn't.... but really, who lies about that about just 3 teeth which are paid by gov insurance, when they could lie about a bunch more or other procedures? )
Anyway, thank you for reading this long winded, scattered post. I hope you all (or maybe even some dentists) could give me some advice with this before I make a commitment to anything. Right now I'm leaning towards keeping my filling, but I'm still worried it might crack too that way, somehow by accident. I'm not sure what other second opinion I *could* see with a higher rating that would be decent and accommodating to one with Denti-cal/Low Income in a city filled with rich people. (I'm living in San Francisco ATM)
It's definitely scary, and that's why I'm here.
So please try to convince me to do the right thing, because I'm lost. Haha.
A bit of a back story.... Years ago (Nov 2011 in California) I had a cavity in a front upper incisor, the one next to the front ones, on the side closest to the canine which was definitely noticeable. At the time I had no money, no coverage, no cheap way to get it done. So I had to wait... Eventually I got into a government program (Job Corps) which helped me to take care of some issues. Unfortunately, being a government program I had to wait a while longer than I really needed to! Eventually I got a filling for it... looking good, so I thought.... But then, something happened. Somehow the filling was so close to the root that it got infected around December (filling was placed in Sept/Oct) and so I had to have a root canal preformed on it. After that, I really felt nothing, but then I started to feel occasional weird throbbing.
I transfer to a different Job Corps location in central Cal, and I've already become familiar with checking in with a dentist when I move because hell if I want more worse to happen to me. She xrays me and tells me that my root is reinfected because they used an archaic filling for a RCT which was a metal pin, instead of the more common rubber root filling. (Really a great dentist which I could've kept her)
She recommended that I get a crown for it, and I'm thinking "I guess later, when I get a FT job and can afford it" (Really subconsciously putting it off.....)
I graduate from the program and find a new place to live in Oct 2014. And I put off visiting a dentist for a long time, because I only have one option I know of that Denti-Cal (The free CA insurance) accepts, and that's Western Dental.
Previous dentist recommended to stay away from Western Dental, but it's been a YEAR (and a few months) and I need a checkup. As a PT worker, FT college student NOW, I don't have any other insurance. I need to check these things bi-yearly, srsly, or else I'm worried because I have had a lot of work done and don't want to screw it up.
I just had my first exam there last Tuesday.... and it was a bit odd. They took xrays, but didn't show them to me (Gonna ask them to do that this Tuesday), and took pictures of my teeth with a little camera. A bit different than I'm used to, with a normal human to human face to face exam to check for anything missed.
To my surprise, I was told I only needed 3 fillings which were all inbetween teeth (Not too surprising, I still forget to floss Dammit! >.> ((Some people would say to their surprise because they never get cavities, for me it's because I have a bunch lol)) And also a crown on my front incisor, which, well, I knew.
This is where it gets me questioning.... I'm feeling I'm just a part of some protocol. "If a tooth has a RCT, cap it" seems to be peoples mantras. But the dentist I went to *previously* did a really awesome job on just the permanent filling. I never bite with it, because I do have an overbite which allow my front incisors to do their job while ignoring the little ones. The tooth has not lost any color, (Funny enough, the canine to my right looks more dull with white calcium flecks than the RCT one does), and does not have pain. The only thing the slightest confusing is that sometimes I can feel a "pulse" sporadically through it, but no infection was found on the Xrays from Western Dental, or they'd have told me, right? (Is it possible they missed it? If they missed that, could they have missed other things too, like my dull canine, even though the dentist himself scaled it?)
I've been doing a lot of googling lately regarding this topic... As I think I might want to get the cap put on it, but then I think I might *not* want to do that.
I have about 2/3 - 3/5 of natural tooth structure left of this restoration I think. I'm going to double check with them on Tuesday. I'm not sure if that's too little to be left without a crown, or if it's fine that way.
In all honesty, after all the effort I've gone through to keep my front teeth in tact and pretty by brushing/flossing/having composite, I feel like putting a crown on my little tooth there is just like getting an implant, only it's my tooth acting as the post, instead of a screw.
It's like, why even bother with a crown, if it's basically a fake tooth that I'm showing everyone? Seriously. I'd be showing everyone the same thing if I had an implant.
Not to mention, with Western Dental being a brand new place I've gone to, and their reputation on Yelp being less than favorable, I honestly do not have the trust instilled yet to trust them with such an important decision as to
1. Make the tooth look like the original
2. Not cause it to fracture/break while doing the procedure (I read some stories where crowns just cause unneeded pressure on the root canal, along with being filed down already, that they just "snap" off at the base. Needless to say, it terrifies me.)
3. Doing it *right* (keeping all bacteria out with the cement and good fit crown)
Still, I don't want it to break or get reinfected due to *not* having the crown, causing even more issue, because I heard that's common too with large fillings... but is mine large enough to warrant that?
It's all so confusing for a person who just wants to do what's best in her individual circumstance, where I feel like many dentists just see people as another number in a line, a protocol to be followed... So For right now, I'm going to put it off. I'll either tell them I don't have the money for it or that in all honesty I don't trust them with such a delicate procedure due to just meeting last week and having low Yelp reviews.
(Though in all honesty, most of those reviews are based on poor front customer service, long wait times, collections calls to customers needing to pay, and the limited time you see the dentist because they're so busy. Not one was about the quality of work, except one that claimed they found cavities where they later were told by a second opinion that they didn't.... but really, who lies about that about just 3 teeth which are paid by gov insurance, when they could lie about a bunch more or other procedures? )
Anyway, thank you for reading this long winded, scattered post. I hope you all (or maybe even some dentists) could give me some advice with this before I make a commitment to anything. Right now I'm leaning towards keeping my filling, but I'm still worried it might crack too that way, somehow by accident. I'm not sure what other second opinion I *could* see with a higher rating that would be decent and accommodating to one with Denti-cal/Low Income in a city filled with rich people. (I'm living in San Francisco ATM)
It's definitely scary, and that's why I'm here.
So please try to convince me to do the right thing, because I'm lost. Haha.