Dental woes anyone? Extraction halted due to being close to sinus...

[RoyEastmannKodak]

I went to have an extraction this morning, of a problematic upper molar and the dentist stopped (after trying for 15 minutes) saying she would advise a referral to a specialist to remove it as it was very close to the sinus.

Has anyone else had this? Is the removal by the specialist likely to be fairly straight-forward? I, like many, get anxious at the dentist but have never needed sedation thus far (don't like the sound of that) so just wondered if anyone knew is this is likely to be something "not too bad" . She pretty much said it was just that a dentist more specialist that her was advisable.

I don’t know anything about that procedure but I can tell you that dental sinus pain was the most horrific pain I have ever encountered, a million times worse than childbirth and I would have agreed to having my head removed to relieve the pain!

Therefore if there is any danger of that happening with you then your dentist ha done the right thing.

Thank you. Yes I had no desire to have her carry on seeing as she had reservations about doing so. Just hoping the procedure may still be straightforward with the specialist.

Those sinus issues sound horrendous .. I hope you got it all adequately sorted

A perforated sinus is awful, technically an oral-anthral fistula.(I've had one of these).

Basically if it happens they put a plug into the socket. It's a weird bone paste type thing. The only issue is for you is the healing process. It's VITAL that the plug "takes", otherwise you're in for a world of shit.

I pretty much spent three whole weeks on my couch. I hardly ate, barely moved, I was terrified of it coming out.

Mine didn't thank christ

It'll be fine, costs a fortune though. It was a few years ago though, so maybe the process has changed by now.

retired dentist here some roots of upper premolars and first molars can be very close to the sinus in the maxilla bone, so an extraction maybe will create an opening between the two known as an oro-antral fistula to give it it's correct name which is undesirable. Referral to an oral surgeon or dentist specialising in this may not prevent it but it could be fixed immediately by a deep suture or special types of packing which may not be available in a general surgery
you will be warned not to blow your nose afterwards
xrays are only 2D pictures so on xray the root can look as if not touching sinus but once you start moving tooth it becomes apparent so your dentist is being sensible in stopping and referring

because they have spotted this problem before it happens your outcome is probably going to be better than one created during in an extraction
it is generally not negligent to create these but not getting appropriate treatment once one is there maybe, however sometimes they can be so small that can can be undetected until you next get a heavy cold

Thank you @TeacupDrama that's v helpful. Yes the cost is a bit of an extra concern. I've already paid for an extraction that didn't happen and the dentist mentioned I'm going to have to pay again for the extraction by the specialist. I'm on a low income but not entitled to any help so I hope it's as straightforward as it can be 😳

Good luck x

I've a dd with dental phobia and she has recently been convinced to try sedation and it is amazing for her. It's meant that even when she's not having sedation then she's more relaxed because if things start getting too much she can say "no" and know she can still get it done.
The downside is that it's hard to get under the NHS.

Yes @Witchend I've heard it's expensive but surely not for children? I may be wrongly assuming your DD is still a child...

I do not know costings in England as I worked in Scotland where the cost of the extraction depended on complexity from about £15 for straightforward to about £50 for a difficult tooth involving minor surgery
but paying for a specialist extraction now is better than paying for surgery later
if you are just above threshold for free treatment there is a different form I think HC1 you can download this online; which has a sliding scale for partial help so depending on income you have to pay the first £x called a HC3 certificate you need less than 16K savings and is really for people who are less than 6 k above annual threshold for full free treatment
you can claim upto 3 months after treatment so provided you keep your receipt you could get a partial refund

A few years back I had an extraction of my furthest back upper molar which resulted in a Sinus Communication (hole into sinus). The next day I knew something was wrong as I couldn’t make the sound “p” or “d” without sounding like a pair of bellows with air escaping.... horrendous. Phoned the dentist in a panic and he told me just to give it a couple of days and make sure if I was to sneeze then do it open mouthed. No antibiotics, stitches, nada. It did eventually heal but was very sore for weeks. I do remember eating Petit Filous for about a week solid and taking a lot of codeine. If I ever need an extraction again will be ensuring that I get sedated and in hospital... Worth every penny, I say.

Roy dd is 18yo ,but in full time education so yes, would get it free under the NHS. However finding an NHS dentist that does sedation has been...time consuming. And we didn't have time. She's had a small amount done privately, but we've now found an NHS dentist that will do it... until she turns 19yo, as they only do children...