Dentist Messed Up His Root Canal
I was in a car accident which led to some medical problems, including a concussion. The part relating to my question today is with my two fractured front teeth. My dentist said it would be best to wait a couple of weeks before doing any work. By the second week, my tooth 8 starting turning dark. I went in to see the dentist. There was no pain at that time and he only felt dried blood. He didn’t feel any treatment was necessary except to fit the fractured teeth for temp crowns. The permanent ones came in three weeks later. A couple of months later I ended up in severe pain. My dentist started an emergency root canal treatment and gave me five days worth of amoxicillin. I had some relief of pain the next day. But then it returned. The root canal was completed a week later, even though the pain was still there. Two weeks later when I was still in pain, I went back in. He saw no reason for the pain but then thought maybe the other injured tooth needed a root canal treatment so he did that. I’m still in pain and do not know what to do. Help.
Sam
Dear Sam,
I am so sorry that you’ve been through all of that. I am going to suggest that you find a different dentist. Preferably a dentist who cares and who understands how to treat a tooth infection, which is sort of a basic when it comes to dental care. Here are some of the things that he did wrong:
First, as soon as the tooth had started to discolor, it was clear that it was in need of a root canal treatment. Second, when when he felt dried blood in the tooth, that was another clear sign. If he’d taken care of it then, it would have been easy. Clear out the dead tissue and fill everything up and close it. Yet, he waited until you were in terrible pain and needed urgent dental care.
Third, when he did do the root canal treatment he went about it completely wrong. Amoxicillin would not be my first choice for an infected tooth, but that isn’t the real problem here. He only gave you enough for five days, but didn’t complete the treatment until after that. Fourth, he closed it up while you were still in pain. That is a clear sign the tooth is still infected. What he should have done is give you enough antibiotic to last until after the treatment is done. If there was any pain he needed to give you a different antibiotic to make sure everything is good to go before he sealed things up. Finally, when you were still in pain, he was unsure why and just decided to root canal a different tooth. Really? That makes no sense.
Here’s what I want you to do. Call a root canal specialist (an endodontist) and tell them everything you told me. They should be able to get you in for an emergency appointment. If they can’t they should give you some strong antibiotics to hold you over until treatment is completed. If the pain returns at all, let them know.
This blog is brought to you by a careful dentist in Moline, Dr. Thomas Goebel.
Should I Remove All of My Wisdom Teeth or Just the Ones that Bother Me?
I have four impacted wisdom teeth. Two are infected. My dentist wants to know if I want to extract all of the impacted wisdom teeth or just the infected ones. One complication is that the bottom teeth are past a nerve. One of those is infected, the other isn’t. Here are the choices my dentist gave me and I’m feeling frozen and I cannot decide. Is one of these better than the other? He did tell me that there is a chance of nerve damage with the bottom teeth.
1. Take out all of the wisdom teeth no matter what.
2. Take out all of the wisdom teeth, but leave the roots of the bottom ones and hope the infection doesn’t spread to the roots. If it does, then he can go back in and take out the root.
3. Only take out the infected teeth, but remove the whole thing.
4. Only take out the infected teeth, but only remove the crowns of the one by the nerve.
Oh! My dentist said my age matters, but didn’t explain why. I’m 23 right now. Help.
Trudy
Dear Trudy,
Let’s start with the age issue because it will have a huge impact on your decision. The late teens to early twenties are the best time to extract your wisdom teeth. By the time you hit 30 years of age, your chances of complications double. Then, every five years, they double again. That means you are currently at a great age to extract your wisdom teeth, but that won’t last long.
Couple that with the fact that your impacted wisdom teeth are very likely to develop a problem later in life, then I strongly recommend that you have them all extracted while you are in the safest age range. You don’t want to wait until you have a dental emergency on your hands. The only question is whether or not to leave the root on those bottom teeth near the nerve.
Leaving the root is a reasonable solution. However, I do not recommend that you do not leave the whole root. I would just leave the tip and not the entire root. This reduces the chances of infection or your body having a problem with it being there.
This blog is brought to you by Moline Dentist Dr. Thomas Goebel.
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