With apologies for the length of this message, I would be grateful for any insight into a dental nightmare I’m currently going through. During the course of root canal treatment/retreatment on two upper back molars commencing last November (at least one of which has now failed two months after completion, and potentially also the other, but that’s another depressing story) with a private endodontist to whom my own dentist referred me, the endodontist brought my attention to what he said were ‘very concerning areas of ‘decay’ that he’d spotted on the scan in the UR5 & 6 (adjacent to one of the back molars he’d worked on), and said I should see my dentist as a matter of urgency to have them refilled ‘before things got any worse’. I had experienced no pain whatsoever in either of these teeth, but as he was so emphatic that I shouldn’t wait, I rang my dentist who fitted me in immediately before Christmas. After examination, she said the UR6 was fine, that there was only a tiny area of demineralisation, not decay, and she was not prepared to disturb the amalgam filling in that tooth for no reason. However, she agreed to replace the very shallow filling in the UR5, despite there only being a tiny speck of decay and it being ‘nowhere near the nerve’ (the endodontist had said that it was quite close to the nerve). I had never had problems with fillings she’d carried out over three decades previously, even deep ones, but after that shallow filling replacement, I was no longer able to bite down on the tooth without an electric shock pain. She checked to ensure the bite was okay; it was, though she still smoothed the filling a little just in case, but it made no difference. As she then said it could sometimes take up to six weeks for a filling to settle if the nerve was aggravated, though, I was prepared to wait it out. The endodontist, when I later mentioned this tooth having become a problem since the re-filling, said he always told patients that there was a chance with every filling procedure that previously enclosed bacteria can be driven further into the tooth and root, and sometimes, this can result in a root canal being necessary. He hadn’t mentioned this to me previously and, as I’d only followed his advice to have an emergency re-filling in this pain-free tooth to avoid a root canal, you can imagine that I wasn’t overly-happy to hear that.
Over several weeks, the electric shock pain in the tooth itself gradually decreased to a milder feeling of discomfort on biting down, though I was now experiencing recurrent deep aching in the jaw around the root area. This continued into April, until one day, the pain in the UR5 tooth and root suddenly became so excruciating that I had to return to my dentist as an emergency, and she removed the nerve to prepare for a root canal, as it was clear that this previously trouble-free tooth was now beyond saving with an ordinary filling. She began root treatment via the NHS (RCs now again being permitted on the NHS under Covid regulations) but the pain in the tooth root area remained severe and wouldn’t settle after the dressing phase, so the only option was to return yet again to the private endodontist, for a third private root canal with more sophisticated equipment. However, as I write this, the endodontist has so far carried out two separate cleaning/dressing sessions on the UR5 tooth, with 2-3 week gaps between, but to no avail, and a persistent, painful, hard lump/abscess in the gum in the UR5 root region that had formed during the period of severe pain, and recurrent jaw pain on that side is still present. (When it hadn’t settled after the first attempt, he said he would use a different disinfectant for the second try, as possibly the first wasn’t appropriate for whatever strain of bacteria is causing the infection, but it clearly hasn’t worked). I’m due to return next Weds to reassess. However, everything is now pointing towards having to book a private apicoectomy, to see if that will work. If not, I will face losing a visible tooth that was previously asymptomatic, then waiting three months before having an implant. With savings rapidly dwindling (treatments for the three teeth, scans and consultations so far have totalled over £7,000, with a lot more still to pay) and things becoming worse with the UR5 with each successive form of treatment from the time the original filling was replaced, I can’t possibly see how the outcome could have been any worse if the tooth had just been left alone.
Although I appreciate that it’s tricky for anyone to comment in detail on my specific situation, and I am not in possession of the cone beam scans to post, I wondered if anyone – dental professional or patient - had ever seen or experienced a case where things have deteriorated so drastically in a shallow-filled tooth that had caused no issue previously, purely through being re-filled, and why that may be. Is it really a case of bacteria being driven further into the tooth and causing problems which weren’t previously there, and, if so, is this always unavoidable? Also, why an attempted root canal on that same tooth could be failing to clear infection, leaving the procedure unable to be completed. With no consumer protection with UK private dentistry (the understanding that ‘sometimes things fail’ being the caveat that the patient is bidden to accept, regardless of the cause of that failure) I feel as though I’ll just continue to haemorrhage funds into the private clinic with no resultant benefit at all, and I’m really depressed that I may lose a previously asymptomatic tooth and, for the first time in my life, am very fearful of ever undergoing any preventative or remedial dental procedures again in the future, not in terms of while I’m in the chair but that the outcome could leave me in a worse position, as it has done this time. Very many thanks in advance for any insight or advice anyone can offer.
Over several weeks, the electric shock pain in the tooth itself gradually decreased to a milder feeling of discomfort on biting down, though I was now experiencing recurrent deep aching in the jaw around the root area. This continued into April, until one day, the pain in the UR5 tooth and root suddenly became so excruciating that I had to return to my dentist as an emergency, and she removed the nerve to prepare for a root canal, as it was clear that this previously trouble-free tooth was now beyond saving with an ordinary filling. She began root treatment via the NHS (RCs now again being permitted on the NHS under Covid regulations) but the pain in the tooth root area remained severe and wouldn’t settle after the dressing phase, so the only option was to return yet again to the private endodontist, for a third private root canal with more sophisticated equipment. However, as I write this, the endodontist has so far carried out two separate cleaning/dressing sessions on the UR5 tooth, with 2-3 week gaps between, but to no avail, and a persistent, painful, hard lump/abscess in the gum in the UR5 root region that had formed during the period of severe pain, and recurrent jaw pain on that side is still present. (When it hadn’t settled after the first attempt, he said he would use a different disinfectant for the second try, as possibly the first wasn’t appropriate for whatever strain of bacteria is causing the infection, but it clearly hasn’t worked). I’m due to return next Weds to reassess. However, everything is now pointing towards having to book a private apicoectomy, to see if that will work. If not, I will face losing a visible tooth that was previously asymptomatic, then waiting three months before having an implant. With savings rapidly dwindling (treatments for the three teeth, scans and consultations so far have totalled over £7,000, with a lot more still to pay) and things becoming worse with the UR5 with each successive form of treatment from the time the original filling was replaced, I can’t possibly see how the outcome could have been any worse if the tooth had just been left alone.
Although I appreciate that it’s tricky for anyone to comment in detail on my specific situation, and I am not in possession of the cone beam scans to post, I wondered if anyone – dental professional or patient - had ever seen or experienced a case where things have deteriorated so drastically in a shallow-filled tooth that had caused no issue previously, purely through being re-filled, and why that may be. Is it really a case of bacteria being driven further into the tooth and causing problems which weren’t previously there, and, if so, is this always unavoidable? Also, why an attempted root canal on that same tooth could be failing to clear infection, leaving the procedure unable to be completed. With no consumer protection with UK private dentistry (the understanding that ‘sometimes things fail’ being the caveat that the patient is bidden to accept, regardless of the cause of that failure) I feel as though I’ll just continue to haemorrhage funds into the private clinic with no resultant benefit at all, and I’m really depressed that I may lose a previously asymptomatic tooth and, for the first time in my life, am very fearful of ever undergoing any preventative or remedial dental procedures again in the future, not in terms of while I’m in the chair but that the outcome could leave me in a worse position, as it has done this time. Very many thanks in advance for any insight or advice anyone can offer.