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February 15, 2005
Well, isn't this just the suck
Two years ago, I had a tooth that was giving me some pain. I went to the dentist, he took some X-rays. He didn't see anything, but drilled a little and gave me a filling anyway. This did not make the pain stop. So, he deduced that I must have a crack somewhere in my tooth and did a root canal.
This was the worst pain I have ever felt in my life. Even after two shots of novacaine, I could feel it. It was more painful than my kidney stone. It actually brought me to tears.
Needless to say, I did not tell him that I was feeling a kind of pressure under my crown. I would rather it have rotted away than to feel that pain again.
This year, I went to a new dentist because my insurance changed. He apparantly is very excited about dentistry, because he told me what great teeth I have and how my roots are so long, my teeth will probably never fall out. Since he was so nice, I told him about the pressure under my crown. He took some X-rays but couldn't really see anything. So he sent me to an endodontist.
The endodontist told me I have a few options, and all of them suck.
1) Do nothing. If the tooth isn't really bothering me (and it's not.. I was just worried something was really wrong under there) then I will probably be okay. He said to just make sure my dentist takes an X-ray once a year to make sure it's not getting bad.
2) Re-treatment. This would involve drilling a hole in my crown and cleaning out all the filling that my previous dentist put in there. My crown could break and I might need to get another one. Another problem is that the root might have shrunk (or the filling he put in there, I don't really know what I am talking about) and he actually plans on dissolving the filling, and it could infect where the root used to be (or something like that). In this case we would go to...
2A) Apicoectomy. "Excision of the apical portion of a tooth through an opening made in the overlying labial, buccal, or palatal alveolar bone." Basically, he would cut into my gum and get to the root from there. Not particularly appealing. And if I had a crack still in my tooth, or in the root, that wouldn't solve the problem anyway. So, that would lead to...
3) Extraction. I do not want to lose my tooth. I am only 25. I take good care of my teeth. And the most attractive option for replacing the tooth would be a dental implant, which I do not have the money for.
So, for the time being, I have opted to do nothing. My dentist will make sure that everything is ok in there and if it actually starts to hurt, I guess I'll get the re-treatment done. *sigh*
Posted by shmecky at February 15, 2005 09:01 AM
Comments
Ew. Tooth pains. But I think you made the right choice. (ew. tooth pains)
Posted by: Deb at February 18, 2005 01:16 AM