I think I went to that dentist once. I didn't want x-rays and I got a lecture from him, which was basically all about his lawyers tell him this that and the other thing to protect himself. He also filled a tooth and I had constant pain in it thereafter. And of course, when I went back to him, he asked me if I'd eaten any popcorn and I said yes and he said, That's it! I wasn't it. He was just looking out for himself, again. I never went back to that quack.

These guys are unprofessional, IMO. If a dentist screws up such that you ends up needing something you didn't need in the first place, he or she should cover it. I regret for you that you didn't just thrill at the drugstore cement working and cancel the appointment. If you were to swallow a tooth, it'd show up eventually with out any problems.

Professionals do what it is right for they patient/client and take responsibility when something goes wrong. Unfortunately, I see fewer and fewer "professionals" acting in a professional manner.

If I were you, I'd call the American Dental Association and relay your story and see what they have to say.

I also had a root canal and crown placed on a back molar. The crown cracked in 1/2 and completely fell off about 2 months ago. Unlike yours, I couldn't put the crown back together.

Since then I've been living with just the stump of a tooth and also like you have learned to eat and just live with it as is. There is no pain, just feels weird. I'm currently waiting on spending the thousand required to fix it, but after your story, I might not.

I'm sorry for all the pain you've gone through. I hope they fix it for you!

That's awful. I don't understand how you could still feel pain after a root canal - isn't that the point? It sounds like the dentist who did it doesn't know what she's doing. Sounds like some of the nerve is still there.

I would definitely get a new dentist, though. That's for sure. Saying you have to live with the pain or get an implant doesn't seem like an acceptable answer after multiple root canals and crowns, especially since you didn't have any pain to begin with. I would be livid. They are very expensive. Did he say why you needed a root canal?

In my experience, dentists won't re-cement a crown, especially if they didn't do the crown. So that part isn't unusual.

Are you considering legal action?

Good luck with legal action. Lawyers are often just as bad. Won't take a legitimate case unless there is enough money in it for them.

Where are the professionals??!!

That's what I don't understand either. A root canal should not have any pain because the nerve has been removed (so having a second root canal doesn't make sense unless the first one wasn't done properly) and then everything is cleaned and sealed with the crown. Could you maybe have an infection? I'm not a doctor or dentist or hygenist but I would follow this up. It is very dangerous to your health to have pain/infections in your mouth and teeth. Can you follow up with your doctor rather than your dentist?

I would dump this dentist. He saw "plan" and went to town.

There are certain understanding that I picked up when I worked at a dentist office for 3 years.

First of all, may I ask. On your initial visit with your friend's dentist, did he just left your crown off? The dentist should have at least temporarily bond your old crown back until the appointment for a root canal. By the way, unless, you had a cavity or had a cracked tooth, there was no reason for a root canal.

Secondly, as others had explained it. A root canal is a procedure to remove all the nerves at the root of your tooth. When the nerves are removed, there would be nothing left to keep your tooth alive nor giving you pain. As time goes by, the root will become brittle. This is one of the reason why a crown is recommended over a tooth that had a root canal. It's there to protect the death tooth. Note: Even a death tooth with a crown is better than an implant, bridge, or partial.

Pawprint1, you should have a crown or even a temporary crown put on asap before that root canal tooth breaks off. If it does, it may be that your only option is to have it extracted. Then, it will cost you more money along the way (eg: implant, bridge, partial, etc.).

Back to Jodi_SoCal. So, what's all this means is that you should not have anymore pain once you've completed a full root canal procedure on a tooth. Keep in mind that a "complete" root canal procedure on a molar can take 2 to 3 appointments. With only 1 appointment, there's still nerves there to cause pain. It sounded like you didn't have the complete procedure for a root canal.

That dentist is responsible for your pain. That is if you kept all your appointments for the "complete" root canal. If you didn't keep all of your appointments, the fault is on your side.

If the dentist that did your root canal did not want to come back for the complete procedure, your friend's dentist or whoever is in charge of that clinic is responsible for it. S/he/they should get another dentist to complete the procedure. If it's not your fault, you should demand the right treatment or get your money back. If insurance was involved, contact your insurance and tell them how it was. The insurance may be able to advise you as well.

Why would you need an implant if the root canal was done correctly? Implant means that your own tooth needs to be extract. Why would a dentist extract a tooth if it's not severly decayed or broken? (after more $$$$?)

If you can't get the root canal done right at that clinic, I would suggest you to go to another dentist and get a 2nd opinion. You may end up paying for another root canal (or maybe not if you get a refund) but hopefully, it will be done correctly this time. Then, the crown could be put back properly and you wouldn't need to spend money on an implant that you may not need.

Best wishes.

There are so many odd things in this story -

- pain from a tooth that's had a root canal?
- reattaching a crown on your own?
- a travelling endodontist? What's that all about, why wouldn't they have their own office?
- living with tooth pain for months on end?

The ADA is the professional association for dentists. What would you expect them to do besides listen politely and then ask if you wanted the name of another dentist? They aren't the mother of the next door neighbor kid who threw a rock and hit you in the head.

You need a good dentist and maybe two (GP and endo) and maybe more (+ oral surgeon?), but not a good lawyer. Good luck.

some dentists who do root canals don't have their own office. One that did one on me several years ago, worked for several different offices. He only worked at my dentists office on Fridays. I do think though, that if you didn't have pain in the first place, you shouldn't have had any pain when he was done.

i would suggest you look at the dentists in your insurance plan and see where they went to dental school. It's not fool-proof, but it's a good place to start. Then try to read reviews about each one once you've narrowed it down.

Thank you all for your replies ...

SnidelyWhiplash ... drug stores sell a temporary cement just for the purpose of holding a crown on until you can see a dentist so I don't see what's so odd about me using it until I could get in to have it cemented properly. I just didn't want to keep eating on the other side for another week or so.

I know a couple of dentist that use outside dental professionals to do work at their office once or twice a week. That is how two of my previous implants were done as well.

The pain in a tooth that has had not one, but two root canals is why I'm dealing with all of these problems and questions as to what to do. The dentist and the Endodontist both assured me that there was no remaining roots to deal with and that if they went in to do a third RC, that it would likely compromise the integrity of what is left of my molar. Many x-rays have been viewed and discussions have taken place over this problem and to be honest both doctors are baffled.

Putting up with pain for months on end certainly was not my idea or fault. We were all hoping the pain would settle down after a while. But it didn't.

ntt_hou I've had root canals done before on a couple of other molars and each time it only took one visit. Multiple visits for this molar was never mentioned or expected.

I like the idea of asking both my insurance company and the ADA what to do next.

I am not a litigious person so in the end, that will not be how this plays out.

You can bet that I will not be having any other work done by this dentist but I won't be telling him that until this whole issue is resolved or the pain goes away, which ever happens first.

Jodi, what a lousy experience. I feel bad for you. I've had a lot of dental work over the years, done by numerous dentists, some dramatically better than others. (Or, to put it another way, some dramatically worse.) I, too, am puzzled why you continue to experience pain in that tooth. I wonder if the source could be the gum rather than the tooth. Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference. I was also thinking infection, but that would show up on an x-ray, no?

I hope you can get this resolved soon.

joaniepoanie ... this dentist came highly recommended by someone I've known for many years and trust. She, her husband and four kids all go to him. He is a very personable and professional man and has a lovely, attentive staff.

There is nothing slipshot about his dental practice and he has lots of competition within five miles to keep him on his toes. His Yelp ratings are five out of five stars with 14 reviews. There was absolutely nothing to make me think this would be nothing but a positive experience.

Ooops, forgot to address the question of infection. No, there is no infection nor is the pain related to my gums, which are very healthy. It involves only the tooth.

jodi, I think this is much less common than you think. Established specialists don't travel to the offices of GPs to do work. I'll bet that this was some kind of fee sharing arrangement with a specialist who hadn't established or bought into a practice or couldn't (for whatever reason) find a job.

In addition to a new GP dentist, find yourself a specialist whose skills and practice record are good enough to have already developed their own base of patients and referrals that support having their own fixed office.

I think the "it was too far to travel" story is baloney, and was likely a terminated relationship because of problems or dissatisfaction on either or both sides.

Good dentists are rarely baffled. Even the best will periodically make a mistake. But so say they were baffled is itself baffling.

Jodi, I don't see any reason for this dentist to have done the root canal -- but there's no going back now. I agree that you need to completely ditch this guy -- he's in it for the money!

It's possible that you are misinterpreting the pain... I have a tooth w/ a root canal that would cause me a sharp pain if I bit down on it just right. I suffered with it for years and my dentist couldn't explain it. FINALLY he noticed the crack in the tooth next to it -- where I never felt pain. Once the cracked tooth was repaired I stopped feeling pain in the tooth with the root canal. :p

Otherwise, you don't want to hear the horrors about what can go wrong with a root canal... that same tooth of mine has undergone root canal work no less than 6 times, by 3 different dentists. Ask what can happen if they use silver (rather than gutta percha) and that silver corrodes and fuses to the person's jaw. :(

So far I've been lucky...2 root canals and one implant....Seriously, my MIL had trouble with a bridge and I'm glad I opted for the implant...but that's just my opinion....So far no trouble with any of them...I'm 68 so will probably need more work done though.

I just had a similar procedure. I broke off tooth #6 near the gum line. My regular dentist spoke about 3 options and the one she was said that had the best outcome was the most expensive, an implant.

A friend of mine who is a dentist spied my broken tooth and said that he could fix the tooth at much lower cost. He recommended a root canal, post, and crown. A noble metal post (titanium) provides support to securely hold the crown; A root canal is needed for installation of the post and that is was what I chose. It has worked well.

I have had several root canals and after the initial work, there may be some soreness in the connective tissue that holds the tooth, but that should subside in a couple of weeks. When tenderness persists, the tooth socket maybe infected or the bottom of the tooth was not well sealed after the root canal and permits a pocket for infection.

Over a year ago, I had a root canal and cap and that one did remain tender for several months, but slowly improved until the tenderness went away. It never ached. If your tooth is aching, suspect infection in the surrounding tissue. After a root canal, there are no nerves left in the tooth. Any pain you feel is from nerves outside the tooth.

I just remembered that two of my root canals were done on teeth that had been crowned years earlier. They just went in right through the crown with no problem.

Given the reference and information you had about this dentist, you had every reason to believe his judgment was valid. But his reason for insisting on a root canal borders on the bizarre.

Jodi, I have had several root canals over the years. I like an endodontist in Laguna Hills if you want another recommendation close by. He is not treatment happy and will tell you your options and the potential outcomes. Of course, it is important to have a doctor on your insurance plan.

It is possible to have pain on a tooth after a root canal. I have had a total of 4 procedures on one tooth over 25 years. Two root canals and two apioectomies. The good news is that the tooth has been saved. Go to an endodontist and have this explained to you. It can happen.

Mouth pain is the worst, I'm sorry you're hurting Jodi. I had a crown pop off one night and I wasn't going to be able to get into the dentist for several days so I googled home remedies and I found out that you can put a crown back on in some instances using just Vaseline, which is what I did. It worked really well and the dentist was amazed at how strong the suction was that was holding it on when I finally got into see him. And he was not the dentist who had made the crown but he was perfectly happy cleaning the area and then gluing it back on for me.

I hope you find a solution to your problem soon because I hate to think of you living with pain. I don't have any recommendations as to how to go about it though.

I went through pain in a crown and suffered big time and he would tap it and say does it hurt, no and then I would pay big bucks and off I would go and suffer terribly with pain and found myself clutching my teeth and my mouth and teeth hurt so bad. I went to get teeth cleaned and dentist came in and said is all okay, yes as I no point in mentioning due to he will tap and say hurt, no and that would be it. Well, the dental hygenist said you haven't had a frontal x-ray since you came here many years ago and so took it and found that the pain I was suffering from was from infection and so given antiobiotics and fixed and was fine.

No, just because you lost it, you can cause damage, you got to fill it up again as you will get everything in it, I lost a filling over christmas one time and had to wait and it caused problems because of the waiting.

Also crowns, you will need root canals, I have had to get two or three and cost a lot to pay for those as I have no coverage at all.
Then I lost one and thankfully he could put it on and hasn't fallen off or given me pain since and I pray it doesn't. But heard that crowns don't last long time so you will need to replace them over time.

kathy

It's not uncommon to have to have one or even more root canals done on the same tooth over the years. Molars in particular have more than one root. Sometimes bacteria can get behind the crown and cause further decay. I'm having an old crowned tooth redone with a root canal at the begining of next month. The crown is fine, the tooth feels fine but the xray showed otherwise. My dentist does them but has sent DD to a specialist because she has roots that are twisty, multiple and complicated. My dentist does them in at least two stages to make sure anything lurking behind the scenes is not going to cause issues. The root canal I recently had on a tooth that had a filling break off of took four visits prior to the final crown. My gum area was "angry" and it concerned him so he wanted to be sure all was settled before the final capping off. Each time he drilled a bit and made sure no bacteria or decay was taking hold. He also had his tech make a new temp each visit.

I've reattached at lost crown with that drug store stuff while waiting for a dental appointment. My dentist has re-cemented several crowns -- secret is getting it done FAST before decay can creep in.

I've only had root canals done by a specialist -- many of them. Most recently I had pain in a previously treated tooth; went back for more canal work; didn't help. A thousand dollars later, the endo 'discovered' that the tooth was cracked; half has a living (cannaled) root and the other half does not. I've kept it for now, rather then add a second bridge or do an implant. My endo said he had a prof in dental school who made the same decision, open end. I do keep the area super clean.