Your thoughts...

[Old_Mil]

Girlfriend with tooth pain goes in to see a dentist (after waiting a week for the appointment), and is told that she has a bad cavity that needs a root canal. The dentist says come back in another week for the root canal. So she goes back. They do some dental work and tell her to come back in yet another week for completion of the procedure because they haven't booked an appointment that is long enough.

Three days following that, she develops a bad sinus infection and the pain which was previously localized to the tooth has now spread throughout her jaw. She calls them and begs them to get her in sooner, they refuse.

Today (they day they were supposed to complete the procedure) they tell her that her (perfectly good) wisdom tooth is interfering with the placement of the crown, and that she will have to wait a month, to have the wisdom tooth pulled, and then return yet again for the crown to be placed.

Meanwhile, I'm getting increasingly pissed about an attitude that has dragged this mess out for three weeks, possibly caused a secondary infection, and now won't be completed by this dentist unless she agrees to have a perfectly good wisdom tooth pulled.

Thoughts about what is going on here? Incompetence? Insurance fraud? Crappy triage?

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[browncrack]

Sounds like the standard therapy for a pulpectomy with normal complications. Of course, SDN isn't a source dental advice.

 

[gryffindor]

I'm still baffled why people don't get second opinions from another professional when they hear something they don't like.

 

[SeaBass]

Girlfriend with tooth pain goes in to see a dentist (after waiting a week for the appointment), and is told that she has a bad cavity that needs a root canal. The dentist says come back in another week for the root canal. So she goes back. They do some dental work and tell her to come back in yet another week for completion of the procedure because they haven't booked an appointment that is long enough.

Could be a very busy dentist who provided her with his/her first opening for an assessment and following that his/her first opening of sufficient length for a pulpectomy (not a 5 minute procedure). I have patients with facial pain on a 1 year + waitlist with a medical specialist. The physician is seen as 'busy' and 'overworked' while a dentist is 'neglectful' if he/she doesn't fully relieve pain in a walk-in basis. Not every root canal system is the same and so not every root canal takes a standard time. Could have been difficult canal anatomy and a conscientious dentist who could have finished it fast, or finished it right and chose the latter

Three days following that, she develops a bad sinus infection and the pain which was previously localized to the tooth has now spread throughout her jaw. She calls them and begs them to get her in sooner, they refuse.

If there was a periradicular abscess of a tooth with roots approximating the maxillary sinus, could have been a post-op flare up associated with the change in flora following pulpectomy/irrigation, not an uncommon complication and one that happens in the hands of any dentist who does RCT

Today (they day they were supposed to complete the procedure) they tell her that her (perfectly good) wisdom tooth is interfering with the placement of the crown, and that she will have to wait a month, to have the wisdom tooth pulled, and then return yet again for the crown to be placed.

Could be that the wisdom tooth, while maybe free of a cavity, is not 100% erupted (quite often the case) and contacts the tooth being treated below the gumline making a properly made crown difficult/impossible (by a conscientious dentist) or difficult to keep dry adequately for cementation-compromising the end result of a $1500 job. A 'perfectly good' wisdom tooth can be the source of many problems, sometimes to the detriment of the 2nd molar. A wisdom tooth is seldom missed

Meanwhile, I'm getting increasingly pissed about an attitude that has dragged this mess out for three weeks, possibly caused a secondary infection, and now won't be completed by this dentist unless she agrees to have a perfectly good wisdom tooth pulled.

Thoughts about what is going on here? Incompetence? Insurance fraud? Crappy triage?

I obviously don't know all the details but just provided you with a scenario by which the dentist may have been providing a good service to her throughout. It's easy to be critical and the skeptic (and make yourself look good in the process), but it goes a long way as a health professional to be the advocate of your fellow practitioners and giving them the benefit of the doubt. One day you may be extending your best efforts in a difficult situation and hope someone will do the same for you. Please note I don't mean to direct my comments toward you but I never have understood why other health practitioners seem to be the least trusting.

 

[pietrodds]

First off, how would you feel if your patients were getting second opinions from a blog? With that said, I'm not about to give you an opinion on yoru girlfriend but I would tell you that there's no such thing as a perfectly fine wisdom tooth in most cases and that's why many dentists promote getting them out early before they cause problems. There's a good chance having a wisdom tooth in there that you can't probably clean caused the decay/root canal. The only thing you have a legitimate complaint about is the manor in which they got her in there to take care of the problem. You probably just picked an office that is very busy and having trouble accomodating patients... reputable practices often have this problem and it's almost a disservice to accept patients that they don't have the capacity for.

There's a reason dentists recommend visits/cleanings every 6 months. It's to catch small problems before they become bigger painful problems. Was your girlfriend seeing a dentist routinely before this occurred? An ounce of prevention... yada yada yada

 

[12YearOldKid]

This thread is going to get closed in no time flat, but what you are describing sounds like a perfectly normal sequence of events to me.

If anything I would be grateful that the dentist took the time to re-appoint and do the procedure correctly (this is a hit in the pocketbook for the dentist) when a less detail oriented dentist would have seen that time was running short, said screw it, and done a half-baked root canal. He also apparently cares that his crowns are done properly and didn't place a crown with a suspect prognosis just to pad his daily production.


Honestly, it sounds like you have a dentist who is probably providing you with good care - and that just takes time.

 

[tinman831]

For all the reasons above, I'm closing the thread. You've been around long enough to know you're not supposed to solicit medical advice on the forums.