New Dentist Broke my Tooth, please help

Rezident

I went to a new dentist (nearer location than my old dentist) for a check-up and they said that a filling was cracked and they would replace it. So after replacing it, the tooth has been extremely painful whenever I eat (there was no pain before). It is weird, there is no pain normally, like now, but it I try to bite down on any food on that side of my mouth, the pain is blinding, it feels like something is seriously wrong now. I cannot eat anything on that side of my mouth, this has been going on for months.



I have been back to them about 5 times they have tried all sorts, cannot fix it anymore and now are saying that the crack was ALWAYS there despite my previous dentist never recommending the filling needing replacing. There was never any pain in the tooth with the old filling and now they say I have to pay nearly €1,800 for a crown to save the tooth. This feels unbelievably unfair, as their taking out the filling caused all the pain. I’ve no idea if there really was a crack in it, there was certainly no pain, it felt fine. I only went in to get my teeth cleaned!

What is the story here? Can dentists just break your tooth and charge you to fix it!? This feels incredibly unfair.

I’ve gone back to my old dentist who say they can do a crown for around €500 but I can’t help thinking that I’d be fine if the new dentist had left it alone in the first place. It feels like the new dentist was doing work perhaps unnecessarily to drum up business as they are only newly opened. Every meal comes with the risk of severe pain if any food goes under that tooth, and now the gums on the other side of my mouth are getting inflamed from doing all the work. Can anyone shed any light on this or point me in the right direction? Please?

Stheno

Did they or your old dentist explain what was wrong?

Rezident

They both said they think there is now a crack in the tooth but they can't see it.

btkm8unsl0w5r4

If the filling was cracked then its not unlikely the tooth itself was also cracked, redoing the filling may have revealed the latent defect. The Dentist most likely did not crack your tooth but it did set off the issue that was already there.

Teeth are often unfair, dentistry is repair work always trying to fix the consequence of disease process. Any issue you have with this is best discussed in person with the dentist with whom you have the issue.

Rezident

Moses Alive Duckling wrote: »

If the filling was cracked then its not unlikely the tooth itself was also cracked, redoing the filling may have revealed the latent defect. The Dentist most likely did not crack your tooth but it did set off the issue that was already there.

Teeth are often unfair, dentistry is repair work always trying to fix the consequence of disease process. Any issue you have with this is best discussed in person with the dentist with whom you have the issue.

It has been discussed with the dentist and their work and advice has clearly been unsatisfactory.

I don't need to be a dentist to see how drilling a filling out of a tooth could have caused a crack in the tooth. What's that thing about, first, do no harm?

I don't see how there could have been zero pain before and massive pain afterwards if the crack was the same all along? It defies common sense. Is there any way this is possible?

Dianthus

It's a pretty crap method of "drumming up business" in a new practice. New patient skips in with no pain, returns 5 times with severe pain. Stressful all round. Bad PR& word of mouth. Who'd purposely do that?!

Cracks are a nightmare to deal with. I've had one patient crack 2 intact teeth (had never had any fillings), & both needed to be extracted. The patient had never had dental treatment in his life- but ate a lot of hard nuts& was going through a period of high stress so was clenching. It's becoming more& more common as people are living busier lives.

Generally you can end up referring to an endodontist who can investigate under microscope exactly where the crack is& whether it's extended into the root.

If you're not happy with the response from the dentist, make contact with the Dental Complaints Resolution Service.

btkm8unsl0w5r4

Rezident wrote: »

I don't need to be a dentist to see how drilling a filling out of a tooth could have caused a crack in the tooth.

I don't see how there could have been zero pain before and massive pain afterwards if the crack was the same all along? It defies common sense. Is there any way this is possible?

Teeth are a crystal structure much like glass. If you drilled a hole in a piece of glass its quite possible a crack in the glass will propagate with the vibration. The drill didnt create the crack but the proceedure opened the existing crack taking it from asymptomatic to symptomatic. It happens.