Apologies in advance for the long post. Six months ago I had routine xrays at the dentist and she said she had seen a shadow on a back molar which had a crown. The crown would need to come off, the tooth be refilled and a new crown put on. So I booked in a series of three appointments to have this done. I had the first stage completed and a temp crown put on. Then I was due to go back for a mould making for the perm crown, this was cancelled by the dentist and the whole thing pushed on a few days. The perm crown fitting was also cancelled, anyway to cut a long story a bit shorter. The perm crown was completed and off I went. The crown never felt comfortable but I thought it might just be because it was new (I’d had the previous crown for 25 years without a problem). A few weeks later I noticed the crowned tooth started throbbing so I waited a week to see if it would go away and then turned up at the dentist and asked if they could fit me in for a five minute bite adjustment. I saw a different dentist at the same practice, she xrayed it and told me I had the start of an infection. I was given antibiotics (5 days worth). I started taking these but they made me so ill my OH had to ring 111. I honestly though I was dying, exorcist style vomiting, sweating, stomach cramps. I dragged myself to the dentist the day after even though I could barely stand up and begged them to see me. They gave me three days of a different antibiotic and said if I was still having tooth pain after these to come back. So I waited a few days and the tooth was still aching, though the throbbing had gone. The dentist said I needed a root canal. So I made appointments for this (some of which they cancelled again!) I am now at the point of having the root canal completed and I am waiting for the mould to be made for the perm crown. The dentst told me the infection had gone in one appointment and then the next she told me these things can take ages to go away! So I don’t think there is an infection but I’m not sure!
My problem is that all these cancelled appointments are starting to erode my faith in the dentist. Also the last time I was there she started moaning about how much all this work is costing her because it’s being done under guarantee for the first crown. She said I can’t keep coming for all these appointments saying it hurts etc when it might just be healing. I have an appointment on Monday and she said I should cancel it and reschedule for the week after if the tooth is still bothering me to give it longer to heal without any obvious plan about what will be done after that. So now I have no clue what to do. My OH thinks I should just go for the appointment, aching or not. The whole thing has dragged on for six months. Each time I have an appointment I worry they will cancel as they’ve cancelled about 50% of my appointments over the last six months. I’ve had six xrays and my tooth still doesn’t feel right. And now I feel like I can’t go to the dentist because I’m an inconvenience and it’s all now really awkward! I’m really starting to run out of strength to keep dealing with this whole thing. I’m also losing less perspective and it’s starting to dominate my life.
The tooth still doesn’t feel right and I don’t want to get stuck over Christmas with a half done root canal and possible pain.