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Fillings Post operative complication (Reply to this comment)
by davekingdds
You may have addressed the situation already, but I will give you my opinion on the situation. When a cavity is very large, regardless of pain or not, it often affects the nerve (clear distinction between affect and infect) meaning that the byproducts that the advancing bacteria are producing can affect the nerve bundle cause problems down the road for a tooth that previously has been entirely pain free.
Often times the bacteria have invaded (infected) the nerve bundle within the tooth, but have yet to cause pain.
Taking into consideration that you were having to knot the floss tells me that likely the cavities were pretty big to start with. So the dentist removed the decay, and placed fillings including gum line fillings during what you described as a long and arduous procedure for the both of you.
Bare in mind that the tooth may have been infected to some degree by the cavity, but was certainly affected significantly by the cavity, and also affected by the drilling process. Despite the fact that the tooth is numb during the drilling process, it is still undergoing a heck of a lot of "insult" with a dental drill going 200,000+ rpm and high speed water and air to help cool and rinse. A perfectly healthy tooth that was unaffected by a cavity has about a 90 to 95% change of complete recovery from the drilling process (meaning little or no post operative pain).
A tooth with a huge cavity has a much less lower success rate, and hence a much higher post operative complication rate primarily due to the fact that there was a huge cavity in it prior to any dental treatment being done.
Statistically speaking, between 6 and 10% of teeth that have anything done to them will eventually need a root canal because of post operative complications (pain/pulpitis/etc). Unfortunately your teeth fell into that group that did need post operative treatment.
Think of it this way.... if you take your car in for an engine overhaul and the next day your 20 year old transmission fails because it can't handle the new engine, would you sue the auto mechanic?
Fillings fix the outside of the tooth, and in 90 to 94% of the time will require no further treatment (so long as the filling lasts and is cared for). The nerve bundle interior to the tooth is its own story.
Hope this helps.
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Jan 24 '10
6:42 pm PST
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me too (Reply to this comment)
by chinfanso
Compare to your case, although mine is not as painful, but I still need opinions on what to do next.
I have my teeth clean and wash last week, the dentist found erosion near the neck of 3 teeths due to too much tooth brushing and recommand me to fill these groves. I accept it.
The first step, he filed my teeth, I felt odd, I did a number of such fillings before and as I remmember, they do not need any filings, I ask him why and he said he wanna make it rough to help the fillings better sick to the teeth. But after the procedure, I felt sore when I touch those teeths, this never happens before to similar fillings on other teeth. So I went back there the next day.
He applied more fillings onto the teeth, but sore stays and additionally, the fillings were very very rough becasue he said he was afraid to file the fillings that may hurt me more. I then went there the third time to file it fillings a bit to smooth it.
Since the sore keeps bothering me when I touch the teeth, so I went back there this week and he redo the fillings again in a big area, almost covering the whole tooth on the outside, but after that night mare starts, the upper and lower teeth do not stay fit when I close my mouth. Also sore happens even during eating. I have no confidence on this dentist at all so I went to another one looks more professional on the certificates.
This dentist file my filligs to make the teeth bit better, almost recovered to the original condition. He also apply something called GC Tooth Moouse on the teeth to try to fix the sore, although the teeth are better now after one night of sleep, I am not sure it's because of the Moouse or the sleep. And this dentist is charging a lot too. My question is:
1) should I keep seeing this expensive dentist?or
2) should I go back to the original dentist, tell him the situation, ask him to trandfer me to another dentist in his clinic because I do not trust him anymore
3) should I record his saying that he did file my teeth and use this as edvidence to ask him to pay for other dentist fee to fix his mess?
4) He did try several times to try to fix my teeth, but the problem is he do not meet his professional as a dentist to do just simple tooth filling. Should I sue him too.
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Jul 11 '07
9:40 pm PDT
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Tough Call (Reply to this comment)
by PattyTherre
Suing anyone in the medical or dental profession without massive evidence, I have found, leads nowhere. You can try but it sounds like there is just too much "iffiness" to win. I tried to sue a member of the medical profession for OBVIOUS grave errors made with my mother and was blown off because I couldn't fight the huge lawyers they have and they all stick together.
I hope, if this guy did mess up, you win some sort of settlement.
Patty
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Jun 14 '05
3:24 pm PDT
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Wow, That's rough... (Reply to this comment)
by jchapkovich
I'm sorry you had to go through all that. I would speak to an attorney but make sure you have all the documentation from all your appointments. Good luck and all my best.
:-)Jen
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Jun 14 '05
5:37 am PDT
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Tricky (Reply to this comment)
by Suzer
Sounds like a tricky situation, and I'm sorry you had to go through the pain and the expense. I have 2 teeth with crowns and had severe pain in one. The dentist couldn't tell which was the problem. Sounds like he did the best he could (know that is not what you want to hear), and acted on the side of caution. Always good in medical or dental situations to get a second opinion.
No harm though in touching base with a lawyer (free consultation that is).
Suzi
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Jun 13 '05
11:00 am PDT
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Oh also... (Reply to this comment)
by chelledun
I know in my case at least two of the problems came from the dentist cutting into a nerve. Some people have deeper grooves in their teeth than others, and those are the same people who can be more prone to cavities.
Michelle
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Jun 13 '05
9:48 am PDT
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Hi... (Reply to this comment)
by chelledun
I have had the same thing happen not once but three times, with two different dentists. Three different cavity fillings have become infected and required a root canal and one tooth implant. I looked into the legal implications of this but have been told it just happens sometimes. I now have one fake tooth and three crowns, and then another crown came later because my teeth moved before the implant could be added so they had to shave off part of a tooth. If you want any advice on dental options I would love to answer any questions about the processes but I really think you are out of luck :(. I know I am.
Michelle
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Jun 13 '05
9:47 am PDT
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if you sue, (Reply to this comment)
by jankp
make sure you have unmistakable proof that the dentist screwed up. Good luck.
Jan
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Jun 12 '05
11:32 pm PDT
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Hmmmm (Reply to this comment)
by phungus
I am not looking to become a millionarie or anything. At the very least, I want my root canals and crowns paid for. I just think something went wrong that time in the dentist's chair and that mistake has turned into several weeks worth of pain and lost time and expenses.
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Jun 12 '05
11:03 pm PDT
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sue that sonuvabitch (Reply to this comment)
by underdawg
Or at least settle. Maybe you'll get free root canals for life?
It never hurts to threaten. I think.
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Jun 12 '05
10:09 pm PDT
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I Know How You Feel (Reply to this comment)
by Granniemose
and I surely do understand your desire to see a lawyer. However, if you do, be prepared for a battle - when their reputtion is at stake, I think that most of them hire lawyers that can be tricky as heck. I do, however, really believe that they should be held resposible for what they do. They sure hold you resposible for what you owe them. Anyway, I hope you are feeling better now.
Virginia
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Jun 12 '05
6:54 pm PDT
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