My wife went to the dentist about a month ago for a regular checkup. One of her old fillings was chipped and the dentist recommended replacing it. She had it replaced and shortly thereafter she was in terrible pain.
She went back and he said that the damage was touching the nerve and that a $700 root canal procedure was necessary. He said that he needed to drill that deep in order to get the old filling out.
Now, I know nothing about dentistry, but I do know that she was in no pain at all, went in to have a filling replaced, and now needs a root canal. Am I off base to say that this dentist messed up and he should be fixing the damage for free?
*I’m trying this in GQ in case there is a straight answer, but feel free to whisk away to the appropriate forum
i’m not a dental anything except a patient. from what i have picked up.
any drilling on a tooth is traumatic to the tooth. the more and deeper the drilling the greater the chance of trauma. this time it was enough to cause trauma to damage the nerve which might not manifest for days to a week.
a dentist might if doing a large amount of deep drilling might give an option of a prophylactic root canal. though a root canal does shorten the life of the tooth so there is a downside to doing that.
My dentist told me that teeth with fillings can over time get infected and then you need a root canal. I guess it could happen pretty fast too.
Hard to say if the root canal should be free since what happened is not unusual. Maybe ask for a discount.
I hope the dentist did not charge extra for undoing his filling. Seems just kind of decent. But unless you can prove he caused the need for the root canal in the first place, you have to pay for that. Seems likely the need for the root canal was imminent without the intervention of the dentist, based on your short description. I’ve been in a situation that turned much worse. The first repair was covered by insurance, but I suppose the dentist should have repaid the insurance company. I’m not talking about a legal or moral responsibility, just kind of a professional self-regard matter. And having said that, I guess the dentist becomes the arbiter.
I’ve had a few too many dental visits.
It’s been my experience that the dentist tries to fill a deep cavity without a root canal. The hope is the tooth will be ok. They can always schedule a root canal later if the nerve in the tooth dies or there’s pain.
I had a close call with a crown last December. An old cavity had fallen out and some tooth was lost. No pain. The dentist prepped the tooth and put on the crown. My tooth was sensitive. It had minor pain a couple days. It was sensitive to cold for several months. It hasn’t bothered me at all lately. I’m glad the dentist saved me money by not doing a root canal. He thought the tooth would be ok and he was right.
The OP’s dentist thought the same thing. Try the procedure and see if a root canal becomes necessary. Since there’s pain, then the root canal can’t be avoided. At least the dentist tried to save the OP money.
No you shouldn’t sue to recover the cost of a root canal for having a cavity filled.
Ask the dentist to check her bite. The filling may be too tall and may be causing more pressure on that tooth and making it hurt. I’ve had to go back to my dentist twice recently after getting a cavity filled. First she adjusted the surfaces of the filling. She overdid that and caused pressure on a different tooth, so I had to get that one trimmed down. She says the tooth can be sensitive for a while after a filling-don’t eat on that side.
I’ve not had a filling in a long time, and I am concerned about the job that my dentist did. (I don’t remember this much of a problem with pain and sensitivity) She offered to remove all my old amalgam fillings-I think I am glad I did not agree with that!
Very experienced dental patient here (bad teeth since childhood and numerous root canals). Also I’m a nurse. I learned the hard way that when a piece of a filling falls out it is often because new decay below or beside the filling loosened it. That is why the dentist recommended replacing the filling. If the new decay is not treated, more damage will go on. The “chipped” filling was probably just the first obvious sign of continuing decay. If the decay has neared the nerve, replacing the filling may or may not fix it. As others have said, the pain may calm down in time. When I’ve had situations like this, the success rate was about 50/50. YMMV.
A similar thing happened to my wife, except we advanced from a new filling, to a root canal and crown, to an implant. Luckily insurance covered the crown, and she has enough dentist friends for the implant to be done at-cost.
As a dentist herself, my wife doesn’t really like our dentist, and blames him for his incompetence. He indicated the new filling due to the filling’s age, not due to new caries (or he was negligent in not explaining that). The new filling failed for whatever reason, and so in went the crown (with requisite root canal). Except… in replacing the filling previously, the dug out too much tooth, leaving the wall very fragile. Even with the crown, the tooth cracked within the gum line, an abscess formed, and wouldn’t you know it, it’s time to pull the tooth, and put in a bridge. (We opted not to use such an archaic device, and pay for the implant out of pocket. Final permanent crown should go in in late June.)
Why not ask for the dental work free? Where’s the proof? It’s professional opinion versus professional opinion.