Went to the emergency dentist and dont feel any better.

[Tulipere]

So I recently have begun to worry about my teeth and scheduled a dentist appointment with someone who seems nice and takes payment plans on Sept 4, a little less than two weeks from now.

Soon after, I started having anxiety about my teeth. I already knew I had a cavity on one of my front incisors and so that was freaking me out. One morning a week ago I get to work and start having an anxiety attack because the right side of my mouth kind of hurt... Not sure if it was the jaw or a tooth. Had to call out of my second job that day out of sheer anxiety.

I had my boyfriend take me to the emergency dentist the next morning. This guy was really nice; they xrayed just the part of my teeth I thought it was and the dentist checked me out and said that while I definitely needed to go to the dentist on the 4th as planned, he thought it was definitely from grinding my teeth at night due to some really tiny hairline fractures on my front teeth. He checked each tooth on that side of my mouth with the freezing stuff and said it didn't seem like any tooth was infected or in need of immediate treatment.

Fast forward to the end of that day, I'm having anxiety at work and I'm in the bathroom, I pull my gums back and panic realizing that I have TWO huge cavities on the very back surfaces of my upper backmost molars. I nearly passed out, I'd never seen them before and had I seen them before I'd have gone to the dentist immediately.

The next day I call out from work and have my boyfriend take me back to the emergency dentist that evening. Different dentist this time; I elected to get full xrays and a full exam and he said I needed a full periodontal deep clean and my wisdoms extracted and all the cavities filled (i have quite a few) he made it seem like I couldn't wait for my appointment in 2 weeks; I kept asking him if it could wait until my appointment and I couldn't get a clear answer from him. Neither of the scary cavities hurt normally but he did poke one with his tool hard so it hurt. I asked the receptionist and she said if anything happened in the time between now and my appointment I could always come back. But I don't want to, the dentist who wrote my treatment plan is scary.

Today, my jaw/ear hurts but the cavity itself doesn't hurt when I bite down, drink or eat. I think it might be my gums that hurt rather than any teeth but now I'm panicking that I might need a root canal if that cavity doesn't hurt when I do stuff to it. The pain in my ear and jaw is really dull, almost imperceptible and I almost think it's my gums. It's only on the right side of my mouth. It's completely bearable. I almost think I'm conjuring it out of anxiety. The scary dentist didn't mention anything like a root canal when he explained things to me, just fillings and I definitely felt like he would try to charge me for whatever he could pressure me into getting done at his clinic.

Is it possible for a cavity to become a root canal situation in two days? I'm trying to do the right thing and get to the dentist, I even took out a loan from my bank to finance a down payment at the dentist I have an appointment with. They quoted me 8000 for everything I needed done and I have the down payment I just don't know if it's so urgent that I need to suffer the emrgrrency people again or can wait for the normal dentist.

Also, for what it's worth, I have always been prone to ear pain, ever since I was a kid even a little bit of wind can make my ears hurt. I feel like I'm obsessing over this.

I just don't know, I've never dealt with healthcare before, I had abusive/inconsistent parents who never taught me how to take care of myself. Lots of things went untreated when I was a kid because I was afraid to speak up.

Thanks for any advice you have.

 

[Tulipere]

Could my gums be really sore and causing the earache because I just recently in the last few days started flossing regularly? Or my wisdom teeth are having temporary pain?

 

[Tulipere]

Btw all my wisdom teeth are impacted and have never hurt until now. If they're even hurting right now, I'm not sure.

 

[Enarete]

Hi Tulipere, not a dentist but two weeks of waiting can‘t make things worse, decay is not that quick. The most important thing is to get the treatment from a dentist you feel comfortable with so if the appointment in two weeks would be with a dentist you liked, then wait. As the receptionist said, if you get any troubles in between, you can still come back.

 

[Scared all the time]

Not a dentist either but the jaw and ear pain can definitely be from grinding. I often have the same thing when I grind my teeth. Jaw, eat and sometimes even slight temple aches.

 

[shinyonne]

If you can afford to get a second opinion, that seems so much more preferable than paying $8,000 to a dentist you don’t like or trust and who causes you anxiety.

I don’t have a ton of experience with this, but perhaps you could ask this other dental office to give you the xrays for you to take somewhere else for a second opinion? (You’ve paid for them after all.)

I’m not a dentist or an expert. But leading up to when I had to have a root canal, I had intolerable shooting pain in my mouth and had to load up on painkillers just to make it through the day and night.

I’ve also had teeth with deep cavities that broke and didn’t feel pain at all.

But in my own personal experience dental pain is not ambiguous and you sound like you’re not even sure if you’re in pain and/or have a dull ache in your jaw (which maybe could be from holding your mouth open wide for the exams?)

Give it a few days and do some research to find a dentist that makes you more comfortable. That dentist might be correct and maybe you do need all that work. But don’t settle for someone who causes you anxiety.

 

[Tulipere]

Thanks everyone! It turns out to not be as bad as I expected, but exactly as expensive. Basically my wisdom teeth are fine and my gums are mostly fine (new hygienist wants to wait and see on that) but the bad news is that I need crowns on those two back molars because the decay is too much for a filling. So those + all the other cavities are going to run me 8k. Trying to figure out how to pay for it right now seeing as I don't have insurance or a credit score. I think my friend might cosign for me on something and maybe that'll sort it out.