Pain when biting down, dentist says can't find the problem

Henrta

For about the past 7 months a tooth is causing me pain every time I eat when ever I bite down, making discovering the actual tooth causing the pain very difficult, as the pain disappears when I stop biting.
   The dentist on 3 different visits (the last being 3 months ago) attempted to give me a filling on a lower sided tooth because of some slight staining, and then when I told them that I was almost certain that was not the cause of the pain, they told me they said it could possibly be a hairline fracture that cannot be located (including on x-ray) and were happy to leave it until it caused me constant pain.
  I have heard that bonding could be used to seal the crack or that visual examinations and dye can reveal cracks, but my dentist did not offer those and seemingly wanted to be done with the problem quickly
 I have been thinking of going to another dentist locally, but are there any other options? Could I ask to be referred through my GP that could do more scans or perhaps be more  successful in tracking the problem down? 

MovingForwards

GPs don't deal with the mouth, dentists do and you'd be told to see yours.
When the x-ray was done, did your dentist have you biting down as you would when eating? 

Is it a private or NHS dentist, as the latter has a lot less available options than the former.

If you want a second or even third opinion, there's nothing stopping you seeking it.

elsien

Is your dentist private or NHS? 

I have a similar issue but in my case it’s pretty clear which tooth it is. 

Henrta

It is an NHS dentist. 
I believe yes, they had me biting down.

Henrta

I get the unfortunate feeling that any dentist I book in my local area is going to recommend a filling from the info I have tried to get direct from the dentist prior to meeting, instead of any working methods to identify location and issue or something like bonding. I've not been reading anything that recommends a filling for a hairline fracture either.

brook2jack2

No one who can't see you or your x rays knows what is going on . However a few things in general

cracked teeth are notoriously difficult to diagnose. They do not show up on x rays and there are few investigations that will definitely tell you there's a problem, more often it is a question of eliminating all other causes and sometimes it's a case of waiting for the problem to become obvious. Unfortunately sometimes the cause becomes obvious when the tooth breaks. 

bonding is not a recommended treatment for cracked back tooth , it is a method of repairing broken front teeth . 

a cracked tooth is notoriously difficult to treat once diagnosed . Treatment can be anything from a filling to a crown to root treatment to taking the tooth out depending where the crack is and how extensive it is and what caused the crack in the first place. 

The important thing is you find a dentist to treat you  , you trust  more  than random people on the internet or Dr Google 

The_Fat_Controller

I had the same issue, nothing on x-rays but as the tooth had previously been filled it was decided the filling would be removed, the tooth checked and refilled or the root removed depending on the findings.

Once done a crack was found, declared irreparable, so it was goodbye tooth and the associated pain.

Henrta

The idea of losing my tooth over such little pain (that I understand could develop to something worse) is disheartening, but ofc something that is a possibility with the developing risk.
I may not be able to trust to someone on Google, but I can only trust to Google reviews ironically, especially with the consultation prices 

Toothsmith

As Brook said, these things can be incredibly difficult to diagnose accurately, and patience with it is far better than trying to get someone to 'do' something, and it turning out to be the wrong thing.

If it is a more serious fracture, it should become apparent where it is relatively quickly, if something more minor, it could be niggling you for a while.

A couple of examples of patients I've seen. 

One chap had a quite minor pain on biting for 3-4 years. Just happened if he caught something like hard breakfast cereal 'wrong', and was just an occasional pain. He thought it was somewhere in the premolar area of his upper jaw. After a couple of years, one of his premolars with a large filling in did need to be crowned for other reasons, so we did that and we hoped that might sort it out. It didn't! After another couple of years, a tiny cusp broke off his very back tooth. This was easily fixed with a small filling - but right from the day the bit fell off, the biting pain disappeared! So this was a tooth a few teeth away from where the problem was perceived to be - and a cusp that had never responded to any of the biting tests I'd frequently done of the whole area.

Another one was more recent. A lady getting quite intense pain in episodes from her top back teeth. Everything looked healthy, nothing amiss on radiographs, and nothing when bite testing the teeth. With her I even referred her to ENT clinic to eliminate sinus problems. A few weeks after her initial visits her back tooth completely broke in half. She came in and it needed extracting. It was the tooth behind the one that she thought the problem was on, and this was also the tooth with the biggest filling in it, which made it my chief suspect too!! 

So in both these cases, waiting for the more evidence of where the problem actually was was completely the right thing to do. Had I try to guess based on what the patient was feeling, or I was thinking, without good evidence it would have turned out to be wrong.