Any dentists around?

[FrodisCapering]

I have been with the same (private) dentist since 2018.
It's not cheap.

I have not missed any appointments. Every six months I see her for a check up, as well as have an appointment with the hygienist.
She has said everything is fine, teeth not causing problems, although a couple need to be watched.

Last week I got horrific pain. I had an emergency appointment with another dentist at the practice. He took x-rays and said two teeth were very decayed. He gave me antibiotics to calm everything down and allow him to see which tooth was causing this problem.

I now have to have a root canal and crown.

Aibu to have expected my regular dentist to have picked up on this when we were at the filling, rather than the root canal stage?

I plan to make a complaint, but I'm not sure if I am being reasonable or not.

Difficult to say without looking at your x rays.
For most people x rays are taken every two years , which should pick up decay early. However if something changes eg diet , cleaning , medications, dry mouth etc it’s surprising how quickly a large amount of decay can happen.

After lockdown we had many patients who had had very little work suddenly coming in needing many , large fillings because of the snacking they were doing. The same with people on health kicks drinking protein shakes, fruit teas or smoothies , or people drinking energy drinks.

As an x Ray is a two dimensional view of a three dimensional object you can’t always see decay well on it and sometimes just a slight change in angle shows decay that you couldn’t see before.

A few teeth that need to be watched means there is the early start of decay in some teeth that if you cut down on sugar in diet the decay will get no worse but if sugar intake continues it is surprising how quickly a small problem becomes a large one.