Mouth Hurts After Full Mouth Reconstruction
I need some help. I went in for a full mouth reconstruction. The temporaries seemed to fit okay. When the lower permanent crowns and bridges were placed, they didn’t meet up well with the upper teeth. In fact, it was causing me some pain. My dentist said that would fix itself after he placed the upper ones. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. I mentioned that to him and he did some adjustments, but nothing that helped. He said the teeth are fine but it is possible that I’m just adjusting to having the reconstruction. To “put my mind at ease” he gave me the names of two other dentists he knows that would give me a second opinion. I went to see both of them. They both said that everything looked fine. They didn’t even mention that I have teeth on one side that don’t meet together. I’m starting to wonder if they were more interesting in protecting their colleague’s reputation than they were in giving me a honest diagnosis. My jaw hurts all the time, and now I’m getting headaches. I don’t know what to do.
Mario
Dear Mario,
Bear in mind that I haven’t examined you, but I can give you some general advice. If your teeth are not meeting together that is a problem that needs to be fixed. The fact that he gave you two names for second opinions before you even asked about a second opinion is a bit sketchy to me. Whenever I advise people who write us about a dental issue and I think they need a second opinion, I advise them to get a blind second opinion. That means they go to a dentist who is an expert on the procedure, but do not tell them what your prognosis was or the dentist that did the work. The dental world is a small world and you don’t want a dentist torn between their diagnosis and loyalty to a friend.
In your case, you want to see someone who is an expert in TMJ disorder. They will have the training to know how teeth should occlude, which is the term for how they come together to meet when you bite down. They will have the expertise to give you the evaluation you need. I would look for someone who received post-doctoral training from the Spear Institute, the Pankey Institute, or the Dawson Academy. There are others, but any of these should be fine.
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