Dental drama - what can I do?!

[hereismydog]

Bit long and boring, sorry!

I lost a filling recently and had a temporary one done by an emergency dentist as it was quite painful (excellent service) and was advised to see my own dentist ASAP for a new permanent filling, she didn’t think I would need a root canal as it wasn’t deep.

I booked in with my dental surgery as advised and was seen yesterday by a ‘dental therapist’, which seems to be the dental equivalent of a physician associate. She took an X-ray and announced that she couldn’t do the filling because she thought it was too deep and that I needed to book in with a qualified dentist for a second opinion as I might need a root canal. She couldn’t book me in for this so asked me to speak to the receptionist, who couldn’t offer me anything prebookable until the end of May and told me to call at 8am today to ask for an emergency appointment. I called at 8am and was told I couldn’t have an appointment because I wasn’t in pain. I politely asked why I had been booked in with someone who could not undertake the treatment required and that I was concerned there was no continuity of care as I was being asked to sort it out myself, the receptionist was quite rude and snippy and told me that they had offered me an appointment and it ‘wasn’t her problem’ if I didn’t want to accept it. I explained that I was concerned the temporary filling wouldn’t last 8 weeks and that it would become an emergency that may cause me to lose my tooth entirely. She told me again that I couldn’t have an appointment because I wasn’t currently in pain. I asked if she was telling me I needed to suffer before they would resolve the mistake they made and she hung up on me 😯

This is quite stressful for me as I have quite bad dental phobia (they know this because it’s all over my records and I sometimes get a bit tearful just giving my name when I book in at the desk!) and I’m petrified of having to be in pain before they will help me. WIBU to lie and tell them I am in pain? I hate lying but I don’t know what else to do as I’m so worried I’ll end up losing my tooth altogether if I have to wait 8 weeks.

I don’t think your dental surgery did anything wrong. They offered you an appt but you aren’t willing to wait 8 weeks. That’s your choice but that means you need to go privately if you want to see a dentist sooner.

You’re not going to lose your tooth, not even if the temporary filling falls out (which is very unlikely). You’ll just have toothache.

Your dental anxiety is behind most of this. Maybe you need to look at getting some help for it as sobbing at the dentist is most definitely not normal. None of us like the dentist but your phobia is turning you into a nightmare client and you risk losing your place at the NHS dentist if you continue like this. If you can afford it, you would be better off going privately so they can spend more time handholding you.

Well, I did as I was told and waited until I was in pain. Rang this morning at the exact opening time stated on their website and was told they had changed their opening time but that it hadn’t been updated on the website so all the appointments have now gone. I explained that my face is swollen, I can taste pus and I can’t open my mouth more than a finger width due to pain and swelling so I can’t actually eat anything and the receptionist just fucking hung up on me again. No compassion, no signposting to alternative care, just hung up.

I’m not usually one to make an official complaint, but the ‘service’ has been truly awful so I will be attending the practice tomorrow morning in person to ask for an appointment and to speak to the practice manager.

Also cheers @HundredMilesAnHour for your sneery post, hope it made you feel better

You need to ring 111 for an emergency appointment to deal with the fact you're in pain.

I did, they can’t help until 6pm as the out of hours service doesn’t operate until then 😫

Finally been seen. I have an abscess causing inflammation of my facial muscles, which is why I can’t open my mouth, but thankfully no bone involvement. Now on a hefty whack of antibiotics.

If only there’d been some way of avoiding getting to this stage…

Dentist here.
I think everything that has been done here is standard good practice.
you saw an emergency dentist at out of hours. They correctly placed a temporary filling. A decent temp can last weeks, if not months, as long as you don’t eat any toffees! They can’t do permanent filings at this clinic so they did the right thing to temporise.
A dental therapist is qualified to do permanent fillings in adult teeth. He/ she did exactly the right thing getting an xray and assessing the tooth. You said you weren’t in pain at this point in time. Only dentists can do root canal. Again the therapist made the right call by referring you to the dentist.

there really is no way of knowing ( in this particular case ) if the tooth required root canal treatment prior to the assessment and radiograph with the therapist.

its pretty standard to wait for 8 weeks to see a dentist for routine treatment in any part of the country. There is a recruitment crisis and generally not enough dentists to go round. It’s not their fault.
root treatment generally can take two appointments both 45 minutes to an hour, so it’s not an easy one to schedule at short notice.

I'm a bit confused by your post as you initially said you weren’t in pain. But then subsequently today developed an abscess? Is that correct? And you were seen today. So all the boxes were ticked. The practiced handled it well I think.

you sound like you were annoyed with the receptionist. However you also admit you’re very anxious. Sometimes it can be tricky for receptionists to deal with anxious and demanding patients. And with the greatest of respect, and I’m sure you were lovely and polite, but sometimes those interactions can be tense. Who knows? None of us were witness to this.

finally, and it’s not aimed at the OP, but receptionists, therapists and dentists are doing their very best. We are treating disease that has generally been self inflicted. With a few exceptions.
patients can complain until they are blue in the face about this, that and the other. But there needs to be spme personal
accountability for dental issues without always trying to find someone else to blame.

I started this thread three weeks ago. An abscess has developed within the last three days, which is why I updated the thread. I called on Saturday, nobody answered the phone (they are open), I called yesterday and the published opening hours were incorrect so no appointments available when I phoned at the time published on the website. I went to the desk at 8am this morning, a dentist had phoned in sick so no appointments. I saw the out of hours again this evening because my own practice couldn’t help, yet again. I can’t agree that they ‘handled it well’

I am an HCP and I cannot imagine telling a patient to arrange their own follow-up if I couldn’t provide the level of care they needed. Seems dentistry works very differently as all follow-up would be arranged by me so the patient didn’t have to do the extra legwork to get the required care.

I am anxious but I’m not demanding. I get upset in the dentist’s chair because I have a phobia, surely you’ve come across patients like me? I don’t shout and scream at receptionists. The receptionist hung up on me yesterday when I begged her to help me. If a patient came to me and explained that our receptionist had done that, I would be absolutely mortified. Again, I don’t agree that that was her doing her ‘very best’. Incidentally, I saw her this morning when I tried to book an appointment and asked her why she’d done that to me and to her credit, she apologised and admitted she could have been kinder.

Sure, some people don’t look after their teeth so have many self-inflicted dental diseases. I brush, floss and mouthwash like I’m supposed to, but unfortunately still have some tooth decay. However, it’s a two-way street and people need to be able to access timely dental care to ensure their teeth remain in good shape. As a dentist, you are obviously keen to defend your profession (I’m the same when people complain about the NHS) but I cannot see how I am to blame for what I’ve outlined above.

I take it you ARE joking? £59 Routine appointment, £99 emergency appointment, £125 access appointment!!!

Yup 😫 I’m on maternity leave so 1) I qualify for free treatment at the moment, and 2) I can’t afford to go private anyway because NHS maternity pay isn’t exactly generous 😄

NHS maternity pay is not bad at all.

I'm surprised you are even considering root canal if you have dental phobia. Have you ever had one? They can cause all sorts of problems later on too. I'd rather lose a tooth.

Thank goodness you are now on antibiotics, your pain will go. If you do go ahead with root canal be as sure as you can that you are free of infection and get some more antibiotics to cover you.

Good luck.

All the best at getting this sorted. Feel free to pm me if you want any advice in the meantime x

This is supremely unhelpful for someone anxious regarding dentists. Root canals are done very routinely. If there is a problem later on it can be removed then, why lose a tooth when it can be fine for decades to come?

Also maternity pay is not bad? It's £187 a week - less than half of what someone would make full time on minimum wage. If you want to try living on £750 a month to cover rent/mortgage, bills, food etc please do!