severe abcess from dentist

jakejenson

I went to the dentist last thursday for a filling and while he was waiting for the anaesthetics to kick in he did a clean and polish. After the routine filling was completed I payed. All day Friday I was getting a pain in my gum on my right hand side( this was the opposite to my filling.) I took painkillers yet I still had a niggly pain. Saturday night this pain became more intense and I felt a slight swelling sensation from my upper gum. By Sunday morning the swelling had rapidally increased and the whole right side of face was like a balloon. Immediately I rang up the emergency dentist helpline and they sent me 10 miles to their dental practise. I had to pay £16.20 just for them to say this is a too severe case and I would have to go to hospital.

When I arrived at A&E they pumped antibiotics through my vein in my arm and sent me for a x-ray. I had to stay in a ward overnight because they were worried the swelling could start pushing against the brain. The x-ray reveiled that a tooth on my upper right side had a hole in it!!!!!!!
This is ok but the nurse said that this tooth should have been taken out six months ago. Instead my dentist did a deep filling over the hole which got infected causing the abcess which inturn caused my face to swell.

On Tuesday I had the tooth removed and the swelling as now retreated.

I believe this is my dentists error and want to know how to approach this subject with him as far as i'm aware he doesnt know what has happened because it was the hospital who removed the tooth.

alison999

He'll recieve a letter from the hospital to say that you've been, so he will find out about it. I'd make a appointment with him (are you due a check up anyway?) and just explain to him that the nurse mentioned that the tooth should have been removed earlier and just see what he says, only your dentist can tell you why he didnt take it out.

border_collie

It isn't your dentist's fault. Loads of us have huge fillings INSTEAD of having a tooth out. Would you prefer to have your teeth out or have the dentist try to save them?

Unless the hole was visible when you had your check up for this course of treatment.

It was pure coincidence that it flared up after your visit, any tooth can die then later get an abscess it is just one of those things.


Anyway how can the flippin nurse know what should have been done 6 months ago?

Just tell him what happened next time you go for a check up.

annie2005

It's really common for them now to try and save teeth. There's just so much more that they can do for teeth than in years previously. There's this attitude that once they get the pain under control you will be grateful to still have your teeth.

The whole attitude to the pulling of teeth seems to have changed on a profession wide scale. Though there are without a doubt some sods of butchers who only look at a pulled tooth as one less they can bill you for in the fututre.

It is also possible, as I know to my cost, to get abscesses with are nothing to do with the tooth itself. They can form just through an injury to the gum over perfectly healthy teeth.

annie2005

border_collie wrote: »

Would you prefer to have your teeth out or have the dentist try to save them?

Do agree about the abcess possibly being coincidental to the treatment as that can happen. But would also like to speak up for those of us who are never happier than to have our dentist finally agree to pull teeth. Have several members of my family who have every single tooth pulled and have never ever looked back. There are some gum diseases which as yet have no cure and can only be managed. Only you and not your dentist know what your pain threshold is and when the misery of constant pain is worse than the prospect of having no teeth.

One's got great dentures. And two are so happy to be out of pain that they don't even bother with dentures but just manage perfectly fine with their gums alone.

Toothsmith

jakejenson wrote: »

I went to the dentist last thursday for a filling and while he was waiting for the anaesthetics to kick in he did a clean and polish. After the routine filling was completed I payed. All day Friday I was getting a pain in my gum on my right hand side( this was the opposite to my filling.) I took painkillers yet I still had a niggly pain. Saturday night this pain became more intense and I felt a slight swelling sensation from my upper gum. By Sunday morning the swelling had rapidally increased and the whole right side of face was like a balloon. Immediately I rang up the emergency dentist helpline and they sent me 10 miles to their dental practise. I had to pay £16.20 just for them to say this is a too severe case and I would have to go to hospital.

When I arrived at A&E they pumped antibiotics through my vein in my arm and sent me for a x-ray. I had to stay in a ward overnight because they were worried the swelling could start pushing against the brain. The x-ray reveiled that a tooth on my upper right side had a hole in it!!!!!!!
This is ok but the nurse said that this tooth should have been taken out six months ago. Instead my dentist did a deep filling over the hole which got infected causing the abcess which inturn caused my face to swell.

On Tuesday I had the tooth removed and the swelling as now retreated.

I believe this is my dentists error and want to know how to approach this subject with him as far as i'm aware he doesnt know what has happened because it was the hospital who removed the tooth.

There are too many gaps in this story to be able to judge it.

Have you been to the same dentist for a long time? Do you go regularly? Was it that dentist who did that filling?

First of all, I wouldn't go on the information given by casualty. Doctors and nurses are generally hopeless when it comes to dental problems. Even oral surgeons (Who have dental degrees as well as medical ones) have been in the academic sausage-factory so long that they generally forget the problems of day-to-day practice. It's easy to say what SHOULD have been done with 20/20 hindsight!

Once the tooth had flared up, it would be necessary to take an x-ray of it, but why should your dentist have taken one before it had trouble? Would you like to see a dentist who irradiated you every 6 months 'just in case'? I wouldn't. Sure, it would make it less likely you'd get such an emergency - but it would also hugely increase your radiation exposure, and ultimately your risk of cancer.

If this was a very old filling and had been totally symptomless then it was just bad luck.

If this was the first time you'd been to that dentist, then it could be argued that he should have taken x-rays to check other teeth, but with all this flaring up so quickly, he hardly had a chance to contact you if the x-rays weren't developed immediately.

There are so many possibilities depending on who did what when in your mouth.

I would get a lot more information before getting too nasty.

jakejenson

I've always had bad teeth and have had bad experiences with dentists in the past. My previous dentist did lots of filing that all dropped out after a couple of months. Therefore I didnt visit the dentist for years as I was scared. However my wife presuaded me to visit her dentist who seemed ok. Every thing had been going ok for the last year or so, he sorted out all the previous dentists filling etc.

6 months ago I started getting pain in my right wisdom tooth. That is when he took an x-ray of my teeth and decided to do a filling, everything was fine, I had a routine check up in Dec 08 and was told to make another appointment for a filling on my left wisdom tooth, which I had last Thurs.

In hospital the nurse asked why the dentist didnt take the left wisdom tooth out 6 months ago instead of filling it as the hole was very large. She said cosmetically the filling was very good but he should of removed the tooth.

I've since received a letter from the hospital to make an appointment to have my other wisdom tooth (right side) removed. This is the one the dentist filled on Thurs. This will be at a different dentist. Why haven't they just sent me back to my dentist to have this tooth removed?

Hope this answers your questions. I didnt put too much on original post as didnt want to 'ramble on'.

I also would like to know if I could claim back the £40ish I paid on Thurs for the filling and the £16ish I paid on Sun for the emergency dentist who just told me to go to A&E.

Thanks

Toothsmith

jakejenson wrote: »

In hospital the nurse asked why the dentist didnt take the left wisdom tooth out 6 months ago instead of filling it as the hole was very large. She said cosmetically the filling was very good but he should of removed the tooth.

This is an opinion way above the training and competence of a nurse to assess. I would have taken it with a pinch of salt if a doctor had given this opinion too. They just have no training in dental matters. The opinion of the oral surgeon would be a good starting place.

That doesn't mean they're not CORRECT though!! Just because they're guessing, doesn't mean they've not got it right this time.

I haven't seen what's going on - so that puts me even less qualified than them to give you an accurate opinion.

If you wanted to take it further, then you will need all the information from your dentist and from the hospital in terms of records and any x-rays.

My SUSPICION from all you've written is that you've just been very unlucky - but you need a good dental opinion from someone better placed to judge than me or a casualty nurse.

The £40 you paid was for something totally unconnected with this problem, and for something that hasn't given you a problem, so I would say it would be unfair to claim that back. As you've had further problems within 8 weeks though, any further Band 2 treatment you need will still be covered by that payment. That's probably neither here nor there though as the hospital seem to be keen to sort out your wisdom teeth.

The £16.20 is also the legitamate NHS charge for seeing someone in an emergency. It's not like he knew before he saw you that you'd have to go straight to casualty - so you've still had the 'service'. If you'd have called me out as a private dentist, I'd have charged you £110 and then told you to go to casualty if it was that bad!