When I first came in the Dr. did the regular exam and looked at my ex-rays. He told me I needed two fillings replaced, one because there was a ""ledge"" food could potentially get stuck on but never did, and another because it could potentially develop a secondary cavity. The argument for the first seemed unconvincing, but on the second I trusted his expertise (he is the dentist!). My old fillings were white composite so of course I didn't want to go back to prehistoric metal fillings. I got a quote that was reasonable and went through with it.\r
\r
The same day I realized that anything I ate just packed into the space between my new filling and a neighboring tooth so tight I couldn't even get it out with floss on the first pass. I never had this problem before with my ""bad"" filling. So I went back, told the doc what was bothering me and he told me the following:\r
- the filling is perfect\r
- there is nothing more he can do\r
- the problem occurs because my gum between the two teeth has receded\r
- if it is really bothering me, they can special order some mold and do a crown (the implication was that this is going to be very expensive)\r
\r
I normally highly respect all professionals, but here is what I was thinking: I never had this problem before - did my gum recede in the 2 hours after he did the filling?? So I am still stuck with this problem, reminded of how sorry I am I ever let the man touch that old filling every time I eat. The first few months I sometimes forgot to take floss with me and the discomfort of having food packed between my teeth was so great, I used the back of my earring to get it out (and I was very happy with myself for thinking of such a toothpick since I couldn't concentrate on anything else while having a nail-sized chunk of food jammed between my teeth!). \r
\r
The perfect ending to this is they sent me another bill. After I'd already paid their quoted price, it turned out for one reason or another (the bill was not itemized) I owed them more money for the filling.\r
\r
I also scheduled an appointment with my old dentist in California when I'm there visiting family at X-mas. I'll pay any extra money if he can just get me rid of this pain.
Pros: Short wait, good hygenists
Cons: Bad dentist, extra bill, unnecessary work
more