Dental Work (1 Viewer)

[Chris Lockwood]

> If you know a dentist that does "really good work".....then price should be of a secondary concern

I agree, & I have no dental insurance, so I have to pay the full cost myself. I don't know how you'd even shop around for something like this.

The guy that charges $200 more isn't necessarily better.

I got a couple crowns done by my regular dentist who I'd been seeing for several years at that point. It felt much more comfortable knowing he knew my history for that long. He did one with gold, one porcelain, for technical reasons I forget. He did give me a choice, but I went with his recommendation since he's the one with the dental education.

I have no idea if what I paid was high or low or average, but it was done with a minimum of pain, no side effects, no extra visits beyond the original schedule, so that's all a lot more important than an extra $100 or $200.

 

[Holadem]

I've had more dental work done than I care to remember as well.

A little more than a year ago, I begun a crown prep work at my regular dentist. They have a few dentists in the office actually, and I've dealt with a couple of them in the past with no problems whatsoever. This time around I wasn't so lucky. A precedure that should have taken 2 hours at most lasted 6 freaking hours. Apparently it turned out to be harder than she thought. And shuttling between 2 patients didn't help either (sometimes I would be coming down from the anesthesia by the time she was back, requiring another shot and more waiting). A horrible horrible day.

I was due back in 6 weeks for an impression, but I was so traumatized by my last visit that I simply never showed up... for more than a year... Meanwhile, some other teeth started bothering me, so I went to another dentist on a friend's recommendation.

Boy did I regret that move as well. This was a family practice in a lower income neighborhood. The facilities were definitely a step down from what I was used to, but I decided to keep an open mind (after all, it couldn't be worse that my last dentist visit). Guy had his son working with him, which is fine. The problem is that he was fairly temperamental, and would be barking at his son when he screwed up. I was there for mere fillings, but this guy was just not... gentle. He worked on me while pissed off about one thing or the other, and I felt it. He acted as if it was my fault when I felt pain, "it shouldn't be hurting" he would say -- "well it fucking does!" I would have said if I could. Or I should have bitten his hand instead. Easily the most unprofessional dentist I have ever had the displeasure to experience. Never going back there again.

Well, the tooth I had neglected for more than year now started bothering me again a couple of weeks ago, so I had to make an appointment... with my old dentist. Despite my last experience with her, in general, their office has been good to me, so I wanted to give it another chance, rather than experimenting. Perhaps I should have requested another dentist, but she had started the work so it was probably wise to let her finish it rather than someone else. She scolded me for waiting this long to come back and now her prognostic for the crown with was never great to begin with a year ago is pretty bad now -- the tooth got infected again, and a 10 day anti-biotic treatment reduced some of it (you can see it on the XRay) but not all. She recommends a bridge . I insisted on another anti-biotic treatment (this week) and a crown for now, and if it fails in months or years as it most likely will, I will then proceed with the bridge. Not ready to lose what is left of that tooth without a fight.

I can only hope that our next extended encounter goes better than the last.


I hear ya. I asked my dentist why I had all these issues, if I brushed and flossed no less than the next guy. Her answer was "why are you so tall and I so short?"... I should have told her I would gladly trade a few inches (get your mind off the gutter... though I can afford to lose a few down there too actually ) for healthier teeth.

I have 2 friends in the mid to late 20s who had never had tooth pain until recently.

I fucking hate my teeth .

--
H

 

[KurtEP]

Thanks for the first hand information. Unfortunately, that's about what I'd expected from my discussions with the dentist. I've talked to some other people who had implants and seemed to downplay the procedure, but I never knew the particulars of their situation. I assume they had them somewhere else in their mouth.

Unfortunately, I think that the tooth in question is cracked in half. This is probably causing the crown to loosen occasionally. My dentist encouraged me to hold off until the last possible moment to get it fixed. He doesn't want to drill into my other teeth, and he said basically the same thing you did about the reliability of implants. Fortunately, he doesn't seem like the kind of guy who is out for the quick buck at my expense. If I ever end up going that route, I'll definitely follow your advice about looking into the costs of implant failure.

Hopefully, the dental industry will come up with some better solution before I have to make the decision. Taking a pill and growing a new tooth would be nice .

Edit: As to genetics, my sister and mother have horrible teeth. Constant trouble. My sister has a decent number of crowns, fillings and is looking forward to more as time goes on. On the other hand, my teeth, with the exception of this one and one I broke playing with a golf club when I was a kid, are extremely good, I haven't had a filling in over 15 years. In fact, when I first went to this dentist (to fix the loose crown), he was looking in my mouth and he called all the other people in the office in and asked if they'd ever seen anything like this. I was starting to really worry and asked him what the hell was the problem. His reply was that he had never seen someone with teeth as good as mine with one so messed up. If I had blocked that right cross to the jaw back in karate class, I probably wouldn't be having these problems now *grumble*