Dental Appointment

I am very cross.

I had a crown put in about 18 months ago and I have had endless abscesses under it. I had a dental appointment today and when I got there I was told that my usual dentist had left. The new guy didn’t like the history so he x-rayed. The first x-ray I have had in several years.

The crown wasn’t put on properly and was leaking. There is a chronic infection, which flares up as an abscess regularly and the infection has caused bone loss. The bone itself is infected. The dentist who left had told me to come today to have the nerve removed. All that would have done was stop it being painful while the underlying infection got worse and worse, resulting in more bone loss.

The dentist today had to extract the tooth as it was unavoidable. I’m on heavy duty antibiotics and have to go back in 3 months for more x-rays and to plan further treatment, which will probably be a bridge. Ideally, an Implant would be best, but they cost £2000. Personally, I think they guy who carelessly neglected to do proper diagnostics and then treat appropriately ought to pay for an implant. None of this would have been necessary if he had taken note of the very first abscess, removed the crown, prepared the tooth properly and put a new crown on. I’ve had pain for ages, plus feeling ‘toxic’, which I ascribed to having ME.

My daughter had seen the same guy and he recorded checkups for years with no actual work being done. The best thing that happened to her was to have a dental emergency and to be seen by one of the other partners in the practice. He had wanted to remove 8 teeth but the partner said it was not necessary and that he would ask if she could be transferred to his patient list.

If she and I both had lists of visits with no treatment or investigations done, with an inappropriate treatment plan for both of us, other people were probably having the same experiences. The receptionist told me that he had 'left'. I wonder of he was asked to go when the other partners got fed up with fixing up his carelessness? We will probably never know. But I am relieved he is gone. I had no confidence in him but they are just about the only practice in the area who take a percentage of NHS patients so going to someone else wasn't an option.