Unhappy with my dentist/dental treatment received

Pennylane

brook2jack wrote: »

I am presuming you are 18 or 19 years old.

A root filled tooth is a tooth with a compromised lifespan. If you are lucky you will get 20 years out of it but the statistics say you will lose the tooth by the time you get to your forties at best.

You have another tooth that has needed filling.

This now puts you in a high risk category for needing more treatment soon.

Now providing there are no complicating factors like eg using non fluoride containing toothpaste or having a dry mouth or other complicating medical factors then diet is for everyone the number one factor in decay.

Decay is not caused by not seeing a dentist , its caused by bacteria metabolising sugars/starch . a small hole would stay a small hole if there was no sugar/starch for the bacteria to convert to acid. In fact very early decay can be "healed" completely by changing diet.

Mouthwash doesnt prevent decay, in fact if used within an hour of brushing teeth it interacts with components in toothpaste stopping its action. After brushing with fluoride toothpaste you should spit don't rinse to keep fluoride in contact with the teeth.

One of the contraindications for white fillings is a high decay rate, because composite fillings tend to be more prone to decay under them.

As a student money will be especially tight and it is pointless spending alot of money on private white fillings if you don't change the behaviour that caused them in the first place and a teenager needing a root filling on a molar tooth as well as another filling that has occurred in only two years since their last visit there is something that needs changing .

You are right to be sceptical of advice on the internet but ask your next dentist about the above points and take their advice, it will save alot of pain and money.

Why do you presume that? Also, I do think you were wrong in your first post to assume that the OP had a high sugar diet.

brook2jack

It is possible to have decay leading to a hole, to change your diet and brushing and for the decay to get no worse this is called arrested caries http://thedentalessentials.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/arrested_caries_photo_cropped1.jpg

This is tooth where decay had started , the person changed their diet and the decay "stopped". If the person had continued having a diet where they were exposed to sugar attacks frequently during the day this tooth would have needed a root filling like op.

So op it was not that you didnt go to a dentist when you first noticed that hole that caused a root treatment, or the hole in the other tooth to appear, it was that the conditions in your mouth continued to promote decay. So in a healthy teenager (presumably) who brushes and flosses as you do presumably with fluoride toothpaste then its frequency of sugar attacks you need to look at.

Toothsmith

Pennylane wrote: »

Why do you presume that? Also, I do think you were wrong in your first post to assume that the OP had a high sugar diet.

Moneysaver93, and a student?

Don't think they're 93 years old? So could 93 be birth year maybe?

About 30 yrs ago when I was a student, x-rays showed 3 small cavities in my teeth. I made a few minor changes to my diet and two of them have never needed filling. One required sealing a couple of years ago, but not really a proper 'filling'.

I would agree that diet is the thing that needs looking at here. Needn't necessarily be high-sugar, but holes don't appear, or get big enough to need root filling unless sugar is going in with a greater frequency than is dentally healthy.

McKneff

I have just a thought to add.

You dentists are being incredibly patient...............