AIBU to "demand" an extraction?

[bjf1]

My dentist keeps insisting that she can 'save' my bad tooth. For six or more months now she has filled and drilled and refused my pleas to just take the bloody thing out.
I am getting really pissed off with this now as it flares up every month or so and I end up self medicating on prescription painkillers AND alcohol just to get through the pain.
I am seriously considering just going to another dental practice and offering to pay any amount of cash just to get it removed.
Can I actually do this and AIBU or is my dentist (who clearly seems to gain great pleasure in seeing my pain?
Please note: I am now unable to eat anything again so am in a very bad mood

I had a dentist who took teeth out rather than try to save them. At the time I thought he was doing the right thing as he said he was stopping it dragging on and on, etc until I developed jaw problems as the extractions had imbalanced my jaw joint.

Have a proper conversation with your dentist but please don't think extractions are an easier option

agentzigzag thank you for recognising that! I'm working on bejng lovely, I tried to be today at my OOH clinic.
OP, £47 is the NHS charge for removing up to 32 teeth. Are you bring treated privately?

Brilliantly put tranquilidade.

Why are implants so popular now,despite the fact that they are often painful and very expensive? Because gaps are not the solution to all the problems - they sometimes just shift the problem to a different place.

Just go and see another dentist. If you're able to pay (an extraction cost me £60 recently) then it's no different to going to a different shop because the one you usually use doesn't have what you want. You're allowed to change dentist.

agentzigzag thank you for recognising that! I'm working on bejng lovely, I tried to be today at my OOH clinic.
OP, £47 is the NHS charge for removing up to 32 teeth. Are you bring treated privately?

It's £48 now

Oops, yes. OOH charge is £17.50, I don't do band 2 work which is £48.
Apologies for any misleading which may have occurred.

Of course they'll insist on doing a check up and scale and polish, so probably just over £100 I'd guess. I would. So long as you've plenty more and it's not right at the front.

I've just said in the past to my dentist when they offered root canals that I'd rather they just take the teeth out, that they'd been bothering me for years and I'd had enough of the pain. Best choice ever, haven't any top back molars on my righthand side, which took getting used to, but I don't have constant niggles with flare ups of pain every few weeks to deal with any more. Have you been direct and just said that's what you want?

dodie if NHS treatment then £48 covers check up, x rays, scale & polish, fillings, root canal treatments and extractions. Any number of fillings, root canal treatments and extractions. Total=£48. Not too bad when you consider that could total over three hours work.

Her reason for not removing it was that it is the very large tooth at the upper back. Yes, I realise it's a major tooth needed for chewing etc. But everytime I go it just gets worse. whatever she's doing is not working, so why bother?
Also, as you are a dentist Grumpy, can you just explain to me why dentists feel it necessary to blow cold air on my teeth when I have explained that my teeth are sensitive.
I really hate that.

If the teeth are covered in saliva then it's impossible to see them properly, there are bubbles & reflections everywhere. We dry them to get a proper look at them.

I used to be a nervous dentist visitor and have found, apart from one wanker, the dentists I've used to be really sympathetic and reassuring.

I'm less of a wuss now, and take better care of my teeth. Win/win

Without going OTT, part of the reason the welfare state was set up was because of the general state of peoples teeth, they were rank.

So to get to a point where people can mostly afford to keep their teeth in order (however much they might complain) is pretty good.

Just be assertive and tell her you want it out right away. You're right, what she's trying is not working so you're well within your rights to have an extraction.

Is she very young? Often you find the young dentists are keen to save everything.
The old air thing bjfi is because imagine trying to see things through a swimming pool of saliva. It's almost impossible. So it's blown out of the way. Again, it's not something that dentists do just to torment patients. Someone described dentistry as trying to mend a complex watch, in a box, while someone spits on your fingers. Things aren't always as straightforward as they seem.

You and me Grumpy - we make a good double act

No not NHS and it's cost me a lot so far.
Am happy to pay £47-48-100, whatever as, compared to what I have paid in the past few months would be a bargain just to stop the pain flare ups every couple of weeks. So also costs me a small fortune in painkillers.

Wish there was a like button for 1950shousewife

Bjf1 can you pm me? I don't kno how to do it on my phone. Tell me where you're located.

"Your dentist didn't cause the tooth to need treatment in the first place did she...?"
that remark is a little condescending considering you make your living out people with tooth problems..bit like a midwife saying to a labouring mother...well its not my fault you're up the duff is it? Doesn't really solve the problem at hand.
proper patient care would be to explain fully the reasons why she doesn't want to remove the tooth...and to give advice on how to prevent flare ups of pain. How long is a person supposed to put up with the pain before the general consensus among the similarly qualified peers would be that it is more beneficial to get rid of the pain?...long term use of painkillers is hardly suitable for the rest of the body never mind the detrimental effect it has on your work and life.

Have only read the OP's posts, and am in Scotland so things may be different, but when I had such pain (in a biggish tooth) I went to the emergency dentist at my local hospital, who yanked it out for the princely sum of £10.50. It was a few years ago, though.

I wouldn't say she's young and overly enthusiastic. She is Polish, middle aged and abrupt....she tells me what is going to happen whilst I try to explain how much this hurts.
I have asked her to remove it, but have always viewed dentists like teachers and parents....you don't argue with them!

Oh now here's where I'm going to get flamed no doubt

But regarding the PM...please remember that anyone can be anything they like on the internet and just because someone says they're a dentist/doctor/whatever...doesn't make it so.

Nothing personal Grumpy, sorry

Grumpy, I'm in Derbyshire.

blubbery I'm also not OP's dentist. If I were then inwould have discussed all relevant matters. As I'm not I can't possibly second guess anything to do with the treatment plan except the fact that the dentist didn't cause the original problem.

OP are you in London? There is a 24hour Dentist who extract you tooth anytime of the day or night for about 300.

HTH

Flamed? For telling the truth? On MN Worra??

Never.