Experience at the Dentist

[Araucaria]

I got the two crowns on my teeth at the dentist on Tuesday morning. Actually I was getting a bit annoyed with them the way they were handling it. They kept doing stuff, first taking out the temporary crowns and then putting them back in, then taking boku X-rays, and then putting in the permanent crowns, taking more goddamn X-rays, taking them out. First, every time they took out and put in the crowns, there was a fair bit of pain, which you're not supposed to have with dental procedures. Then it seems that the number of X-rays was excessive, 20 or more overall. It seemed they kept having to do them over. What that tells me is either the technician was doing it wrong, or there was something wrong with the machine. From what I understand, each X-ray comes with a possible cancer risk, which is probably negligible when only a couple are taken. But I'm concerned that if you take too many, the risk can become cumulative. And then they referred me to a periodontist, to have the gums around that one tooth they wanted to crown, but held off because apparently something happened there that made the bedrock connection of that tooth to the underlying bone a bit tenuous.

All this would be bad enough, but this is only the first of three areas in which they want to go in and crown several teeth. I'm not looking forward to having more huge expenses to get all this done, not to mention having to go through fooling with the crowns and the X-rays several more times, not to mention all the initial drilling and fitting for the crowns. Ugh!

I made this post in the Members thread, but there were a couple of issues that were of enough concern to ask. First, it seemed that there was quite a bit of activity with the continual removing and replacing of both the temporary and permanent crowns, which became time-consuming, not to mention the considerable discomfort from doing all this, and what seemed like excessive X-rays. Also, I don't know what to expect with the periodontist, and what it might possibly mean with the gum damage around that one tooth. Finally, I'm not too thrilled to continue to have to go through this extensive dental work, not to mention the pain to my bank account, but if it's necessary, I guess I'll have to do it.

 

[KaraBulut]

Based upon what you described, you should get a second opinion before you invest any more money in crowns.

 

[unloadonme]

I had a crown fitted a couple of years ago. The process was as follows:

1 - One x-ray to establish that a crown was needed/suitable.
2 - "Before" impression taken.
3 - Tooth drilled down to stump under local anaesthetic.
4 - "After" impression taken.
5 - Temporary crown fitted.

Two weeks later ...

6 - Temporary crown removed and new, permanent one glued in place.
7 - Relieved of about £300 on way out.

There was no pain and no gum issues. There was some discomfort during the drilling and I gagged a bit when one of the impressions was taken, but otherwise plain sailing.

 

[EJMichaels]

Mine were as unloadonme described, except the one in the back had an x-ray to confirm proper placement since they could not see it. This was a new dentist I tried after an unsatisfactory experience with the one across the street (who wanted to do much more work at higher costs). With insurance changes and the retirement of my long-time dentist, I've had a few different dentists in recent years and found that they vary a lot in what they want to do, how they do it, and what they charge.