My teeth were fine BEFORE going to the dentist!

Seriously!  I cracked a tooth at work.  I fell, clenched my jaw, and one of my back molars cracked and about half of it came out.  I, not wanting to scrape food particles out of the gaping hole in my tooth until it started to hurt, decided to go to a dentist to have it fixed before it became a pain.

Well, the dentist said there was a whole mess of decay in that tooth which is why it cracked so easily.  I could've told him that.  A dentist from his practice told me years ago that that tooth would slowly rot away because of it's position in my mouth and the size of my mouth.  Even though I brush and floss within an hour of every meal and have awesome teeth otherwise, that tooth, along with it's mate on the other side of my mouth, was simply doomed.

So he drilled, and drilled, and drilled, and drilled some more.  Then he rammed some medication up in there and filled it.  Cool beans, buddy!  Thanks for saving my tooth.

It's been a while and I still can't tolerate having food on that side of my mouth.  I've got another tooth he wants to tackle next week on the other side and I'm petrified that it's going to turn out the same way this tooth did.

I had no problems with my teeth, other than them slowly rotting away and being unsightly.  No physical problems, no horrible breath, no health problems.  Just a discolored tooth.  Now I've got irritated gums (it feels like the tooth is constantly cutting in to them back there), sensitive teeth on the right side of my mouth, a very unique feeling in my right cheek, and an insane fear of the dentist because he couldn't get the lower half of my mouth numb.  He shot so much crap in there that my eye went numb. :|

What's worse is all this tooth saving nonsense is costing me seven hundred bucks.  For three hundred I could've just had those two teeth taken out, but they insisted I was better off leaving them in there.

Rargh.  I could bite someone right now.  I'm spending all this money to keep my teeth, might as well use them the way I want to.

Ahh the lovely root canal.  I had one about four years ago.  Felt the pain for about a year after.  Plus while he was doing the root canal I was getting electrical pulses straight through to my toes. 

Never again, they can pull the next bad tooth before I get another root canal.

I feel for you moly.

I didn't have a root canal.  I've had one of those before and it was botched so horribly they took the tooth out.

This was a regular ol' drill and fill.  Just a very deep drill and fill.

i have had the same experience.  i went to the dentist to get my teeth cleaned.  he informed me that one of my fillings was decaying and needed to be changed.  at this time i had no pain in any of my teeth.  i came back a week later and got my filling changed.  it never stopped hurting--i couldnt chew on the right side of my mouth at all and if a piece of food accidently got over there it hurt like hell.  i gave it about 2 months to stop hurting and then went back to the dentist to complain.  he said that filing down my filling would fix it, but it didnt.  he also charged me 70 dollars for an "emergency appointment" to fix the pain that he had created. i still havent paid the 70 dollars and i switched dentists.  i went to the next dentist and they couldnt figure out what was wrong with my tooth.  they even did an xray and said nothing was wrong with it.

this all started November 2007.  I have yet to fix get my tooth fixed.  I havent chewed on the right side of my mouth in 13 months.  I suppose i could be more diligent and find a competent dentist and eventually i will, but it almost seems better to just deal with the pain than deal with idiot dentists anymore.  plus, i cant handle the idea of someone drilling my face without actually knowing what they are doing.  im scared im going to have to get a root canal or something.

Wow.  These are the sorts of horror stories that see me running to my dentist every 6 months. 

Jessicssabc: I also had a bad experience some years ago when a filling went bad and still hurt months after it had been done. I knew it wasnt right and went back to the dentist about 3 times to get him to fix it and he dismissed me. I did end up needing a root canal in that tooth because he hadnt drilled it properly and it was decaying under teh filling.  Does your tooth hurt more when you are lying down?  If so you could need the root canal.  It's worth investigating now while they can still save the tooth.  Root canal is cheaper than having a porcelain tooth fitted!

I don't want to sound rude, but your teeth were NOT fine before going to the dentist. In your own words two of them were rotting. This is NOT fine. I am not a dentist, but I suspect that you should have had that tooth fixed "years ago" when the first dentist reported the problem to you. Keep trying to get it fixed. Good luck!

lol cellulitedelight. seriously.

also, singing girl.  my tooth only hurts if i chew on it.  it doesnt bother me at all as long as i dont put any pressure on it by chewing. i am so used to chewing on the other side of my mouth too that sometimes i forget that im being a weirdo and only chewing on one side of my mouth.  it doesnt hurt on its own.

The difficulty if you pull the teeth is then you will most likely need a bridge or an implant.  Bridges are about the same costs as the work you had done and will keep the teeth in the right spot, but they don't solve the problem of the bone in the jaw winnowing away.  An implant will keep the bone intact and solve the spacing issue.

My dentist is very expensive and doesn't accept insurance, but the knowledge that I've got an excellent dentist is well worth the additional costs.

Except that the issue with my teeth, the cause for them rotting, is my mouth is too small for them.  They're still partially under the gums back there, and one was removed along with my impacted wisdom teeth (the one they botched the root canal on), and the rest were left to see if any could be salvaged.

They're teeth my mouth won't miss if they're taken out.  :\

I've never heard of teeth rotting because the mouth is too small for them.  That just seems wrong to me.  Rotting because the roots are exposed.  Rotting because of an internal crack or due to a filing failing.

In your case, I'd go see an orthodontist if possible.  Not necessarily to get braces, but to plan what should be done with your mouth and the teeth in them.

Hah, I did, like five years ago.  They were the ones who I went to for a second opinion and said those four back molars would all have to come out.  They're in a position that no matter how well I cleaned them, they were doomed to some day get cavities and rot.

Which is exactly why I avoided the dentist for five years. :D

I feel your pain. I had a root canal 4-5 yrs ago on 2 back molars - aprox 3,000 dollars later with crowns I kept going back telling them it would start hurting. Sent me to specialist  right before Thanksgiving and he said part of the root was still there and a piece of instrutment from the root canal was broken in there  but can fix in Jan ( his next opening) a week later had bad flare up day after Thanksgiving waited to Monday a.m. called special said still can't get me in. called my dentist left message and show up with his door opened. He tried to numb it but a tooth that is infected wont numb because the acid counter acts the numbing crap. well after about 3 shots it felt numb and he tried to pull it. SCREAM! not numb underneath. He stops and calls the oral surgeron down the street. call hub to met me there and he knocks me out to pull it. Another 800.00 plus haven't received bill from the other 2 dentist - Pain for a week and now it is finally healing. I can't believe I'm suppose to get another root canal in jan. on a back tooth- have to think about that. think it would be easier to pull and have a implant put in.  Why do they cost as much?!!!

My mother has awful teeth, and several have fallen out over the years. She tried to get our dentist to just pull them all so she could get dentures. They'd look better, and she'll have to eventually, anyways. He refused and wants to preserve them for as long as possible. I'm guessing he just wants to get as much money as possible.

A large part of the reason to keep the teeth for as long as possible is to preserve the jaw bone.  I know this because I have x-rays from a period of 10 years showing one missing tooth (never had that adult tooth and the baby tooth finally bit it).  I didn't get a bridge and just left the space.  After 10 years, a narrowing of the bone in the area was visible even to me.  I got an implant.  If you go for implants, they'll cost around $3,000 each.  Get the laser surgery.  Dr. Shanelec is one of those who do the laser surgery and it has next to no pain.  One elephant size shot of novacaine, 2 hours and a few advil every few hours for a day and I was set.

My grandma also got an implant recently.  It's better for the elderly than a bridge or dentures because they don't have to remove them or work hard to clean under them.  You can floss them and don't have to be very gently, the titanium post in your jaw is not going anywhere.

Thanks smwhipple it's good to hear from someone that has had an implant and what they think of it. My insurance will pay half and it'll be a few month before I can get it they want it to heal completely.

I actually have to think to remember which of my teeth is an implant.  I have 2 crowns as well.  It makes sense where it's possible to keep the natural tooth because it is connected via nerves to the bone.  The implant I have doesn't have quite the same feeling when I put my tongue on it as the natural teeth do.

I did a internet search for tooth decay for crowded teeth and essentially the back teeth are hard to clean to begin with and when you don't have enough room for them, then it becomes impossible to reach all the edges of the tooth and decay is much more likely.

I have a Calcium deficency in my teeth, which I developed when I became pregnant. I have always gone to the dentist for my cleanings, xrays, and floride treatments. I never had a cavatiy until after my first pregnancy. Then the bomb hit and my teeth started decaying right in front of my eyes.

At first the dentist said my bleeding gums was caused by my toothbrush. That it was just to hard and to switch to a softer brush. I did. Second he said I had gengavitis. This coming from the SAME dentist I had been going to ever since I was a child. I was alittle upset so I went to another dentist for another opinion. He is the one who told me about my calcium deficency. He told me to start taking calcium pills and to continue using my softer brush and to switch to a anti cavity toothpaste. Which I did. Finally, after a few years my teeth just kept decaying and the pain started coming.  I could not go to the dentist to get a cleaning anymore because the pain from the sensativity was  SO bad. I cried. Then my teeth started breaking. Little chips would come off. I stopped smiling and barely opened my mouth when I spoke. Then I lost my insurance at work.

 Now I was going to see these sliding scale dentists. You know the ones who worked overtime hours donating their services to the under paid and needy? Yeah those ones. This started the pulling out my teeth process on an emergency basis. I couldn't afford dental insurance, so I paid the sliding scale fee to get a tooth pulled when it got to painful to bare.  I ended up applying for dental insurance through medicaid. I recieved Fidelis Dental. I was in heaven. I went to a new dentist and asked him if he could just pull out all my teeth and give me dentures. I was tired of the pain. He said NO, that he would try and save them because I was so young. I was 25.

This was 5 years ago. I had 6 upper front porcelain caps cemented in over my teeth which he had to grind down to a point to place on. I had 4 other teeth pulled and the rest he filled with silver filling. When he went to finish the left side lower teeth my insurance ran out. Mind you he had already done the root canal on one of the molars and temporarily filled in 2 other teeth in front of the root canaled one and was waiting on permission from the insurance company to finish them. So needless to say I never got the permant crown put on or the permant fillings put it.

For the past 3 years ( since the dentists own temporary fillings fell out 2 years after I got them) I have been filling my teeth with the over the counter tooth filler. I have had no insurance so I have had to pay for my teeth to be removed one at a time. To date I have 13 teeth left in my mouth. NONE of them are saveable, because everyone he filled, the fillings are falling out and I am having to fill with over the counter filling. The teeth are decaying right around the fillings. I had a tooth crack in half eating a piece of pizza. It took me 3 weeks on antibiotic medication and after going to NINE different dentists to finally get one to pull the tooth for $200. I threatened to sue for if someone didn't help me. My teeth now are so bad, I can barely drink anything, let alone brush them. I STILL brush them through the pain. I now ONLY eat foods that are soft not hard as to ensure I won't have another tooth break in half on me. My teeth keep breaking and they cut into my cheeks. I have permant scarring on the inside of my cheek that is so bumpy with scars.

I now have Dental Insurance getting ready to start through my new job. ( I left my old job for a new one just for dental insurance.) When I chose a dentist I went to the office first to speak with them. I said I am not here to have my time wasted, willl you pull them and give me dentures or should I take my buisness elsewhere? They have agreed to start the denture proceedings. I am now going on 31 years old and will after the year 2009, have none of my own teeth left in my mouth.

I STRESS to everyone who reads this, PLEASE GO TO THE DENTIST, regardless if you think you have perfect teeth and no issues. Choose a dentist who WILL work with you, NOT against you. Shop around. I had perfect teeth. A great smile. I could eat any steak set infront of me. Now, I am on a mushy diet. Everything I make I have to chop up or blend so fine I can almost drink it. WOMEN who are reading this, if you become pregnant or have children, keep going to the dentist. YOU DO NOT WANT THIS HAPPENING TO YOU.

Original Post by gypsierose:

Thanks smwhipple it's good to hear from someone that has had an implant and what they think of it. My insurance will pay half and it'll be a few month before I can get it they want it to heal completely.

I had some issues due to my orthodontist having an extra tooth pulled so when my braces came off I had a gap. I had a bridge and it sucked so I looked into getting an implant and it was going to cost $6-7000 and my insurance wouldn't cover any cost. I moved to Korea, found an amazing dentist who studied in the US and paid $1500 for my implant.

I'm having surgery Monday to remove all 4 of my wisdom teeth. I'm super scared... I'm being put to sleep, something I'm not a fan of. My top 2 wisdom teeth are falling apart... I can feel the inside of my tooth on the left side with my tongue (feels like a honeycomb or something). Oh and yes, I'm in pain.

Can't wait for Monday and at the same time, scared.

Reading these stories doesn't help I'm sure.

Wisdom teeth wasn't bad at all. I only used one of the pain pills they prescribed me.

Original Post by alibsam:

Wisdom teeth wasn't bad at all. I only used one of the pain pills they prescribed me.

That's good to know. I'm more worried about being put to sleep than the pain after though. It's no big deal, I'm just a wuss. :)