Don't want crowns. Could it be the dentist's fault?
Prior to going to the dentist my teeth were "ok". Just had some sensitivity on my two front teeth (nothing too severe). Since I've been to the dentist I was told I need new fillings and maybe a crown on the bottom far back tooth. Fine I can deal with that. Last week I went for my first set of fillings (the ones next to the front teeth) and the procedure went good. No pain, he was very gentle. Dentist said no food for an hour and a half, ok. When I did eat and drink my teeth started to hurt? My husband said it was normal and that it would go away. Now a week later, whenever I drink cold drinks or bite cold foods it's very uncomfortable. So I called the dentist and he says I need crowns?? My thing is, why is it before I got the fillings my teeth didn't hurt and now that I did they're sensitive to cold? Did he do something wrong and won't admit it? Why didn't he say I needed crowns for those teeth in the first place? I have three more appoinments for fillings and I'm afraid that they will be sensitive just like the ones I have now. Don't know how to handle this
Dental Keli2012-05-12T13:42:24Z
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You have lots of questions that maybe you should have phoned your dentist to resolve them, your husband is correct in saying that sensitivity is common after fillings for weeks until the nerve settles as this has been upset during the filling. If your are experiencing sensitivity then i assume your teeth are not root treated? This should be the next course and NOT crowns first. If you have root treatments then a crown may be needed, but as a last resort as a second root treatment is possible. The only reason for a crown in my opinion is if your teeth are decayed and broken, a crown is for aesthetics/appearence at the end of the day. A crown is basically a cover which is permanently fixed onto your tooth but the tooth needs to be shortened and narrowed into a spike like shape to allow the crown to be fitted on to look nice. Your tooth will never be the same. There is no going back after a crown obviously except extraction of the tooth which is a last last resort and not needed for you. To answer your question did he do something wrong is probably no - sometimes a tooth becomes irritated and hyper sensitive when drilled and filled and this cannot be predicted as the decay would have been deeper than expected and when he drilled and removed the decayed part of the tooth before the fillinf went in the nerve could have been effected. If you are against crowns which you dont really need i would tell him that the filling has not settled and he needs to remove the filling, treat the tooth with a paste before the filling is fixed on. You may need this for all fillings to ask him that.
Your dentist is wrong. Putting crowns on the teeth is not the solution.
Sometimes the trauma of having a tooth drilled and filled causes the nerve to become super-sensitive. The same thing goes for a crown, but even more so. When a tooth is crowned, most of the tooth is ground down to a small point. It is very traumatic for the tooth, and sooner or later, the nerve will form an abscess. I have several crowns, and all of them had to be root-canaled within two years.
How long have been going to this dentist? I find it very strange that the first thing he says, when you tell him a new filling is painful, is that it must be crowned. Actually, the first thing he should do is to have you back in the office to check your bite. Sometimes when a filling is too high, it hits against the opposing tooth and causes constant pain.
You said your dentist was putting in new fillings. Were these new fillings in teeth that had never been drilled, or was he replacing previous fillings? If he is replacing old fillings that have nothing wrong with them, I wouldn't let him do it.
For the two teeth that are bothering you right how, ask him to put a sedative filling in and them cover it with a noral filling.