Oh My Aching Teeth

I cannot complain enough about the bad dental work done by dentists in New York. So I picked a dentist who happened to be from California figuring that would be the safer route to take.

My story begins way back in July 2008. I went to the dentist and he told me that I needed a filling in my top back molar. It just so happened that the tooth directly below it had an old filling that needed replacing as well. I agreed to let him do the work.

So he drilled out the old filling and discovered that there was decay underneath it. So he drilled some more and kept drilling, then the most uncomfortable pain began to well up inside that tooth. He gave me some topical anesthesia, waited a couple minutes and began again. It helped but it was still uncomfortable.

When he was all done he told me that the tooth was very thin and would be better off if I let him put a crown on it. I agreed that I would rather not have the tooth break on me. So he ground down the tooth, filled it up and put on a temporary crown as well as filling the top tooth.

Three weeks later I went back to get the permanent crown and I told him that the tooth was still giving me pain when I bit down. He said, "Oh the tooth was traumatized, it will just take a couple weeks to get back to normal," and he put on the permanent crown.

A few weeks later I called up and said, "it still hurts." He said, "I'll adjust the bite." He drilled the filling and crown to get a better bite and said, "see if that's better, give it a couple weeks and let me know."

A few weeks later... "Still hurts." Dr., "Let me adjust it".

A few weeks later... "Still hurts." Dr., "Hmm... I guess I'll take off the crown and put in a pain reliever filling." Come back in a few weeks and we'll put a new crown on.

A few weeks later... "Still hurts." Dr., "Let me adjust that bite again."

A few weeks later... "Still hurts." Dr., "I think you need a root canal."

So in January, 6 months after the initial visit I got a root canal. Everything seemed to be fine after that, no more pain and I could chew on the left side of my mouth again.

Two weeks later I got a new permanent crown put on. At this point I must admit that the dentist has been great in dealing with the problem and not charging me anything extra, he even refilled the top tooth because it was still sensitive to cold.

But... a few weeks later, "it feels weird, sort of hurts." Dr., "let me adjust the bite."

A couple weeks later, "still hurts a little." Dr., "let me adjust the bite." The bite felt good, like it was supposed to, so I thought.

Meanwhile we moved to Maryland in May. A couple months later the "permanent" crown came off, something it shouldn't do.

I have to find a dentist in Maryland to put it back on. Dr. in Maryland, "this guy really didn't know what he was doing. I'll glue it on and adjust the bite some more."

Two months later with sinus pain, "Wow, my tooth hurts." Take some decongestant and ibuprofen and a few days later all is well.

Two months later, "my tooth really hurts!" It feels like there is something stuck between the two teeth keeping me from biting down all the way and now both teeth hurt, not just the top one. Decongestant and ibuprophen help to a point but it's a temporary fix.

So here I sit two weeks later and 15 months after the initial dental visit and the same two teeth are giving me pain. Now I will go, yet again, for an adjustment. If this doesn't fix it maybe I'll just have them pull the tooth!!

You have to admit that it's pretty ridiculous for a tooth that doesn't have any roots to be giving me pain. But it's not the roots, it's sore all around the outside of the tooth, not the middle, like it's slowly being pulled out of my jaw.

All I can say is if I need a new crown I'm going to have them send the bill to the old dentist in New York. Even though he was a nice guy and I liked him a lot, he wasn't a very good dentist.