Help! My Husband’s Dentist Can’t Get Him Out of Pain

My husband is absolutely miserable. He’d fallen and had a concussion, cut his lip, and some trauma to his front tooth. The dentist suggested we wait for things to calm down before treating his tooth. A couple of weeks later the tooth had started to change colors to a darker color. We went in to see the dentist and she said that the only thing she could feel there was dry blood so she fitted him for a dental crown and gave him a temporary crown to hold him over. A few weeks later we had the permanent crown. A few weeks after that, he was in horrible pain from this tooth. We went back in to see the dentist. She then started him on four days of amoxicillin and started a root canal treatment that was completed a week later. When she finished the root canal, we told her he was still in pain but she said that these things take time. Two weeks later he is still in pain and she root canaled the tooth next to it even though it wasn’t bothering him. He’s still in pain and we don’t know what to do.

Catherine

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Dear Catherine,

I’m bit blown away by the level of incompetence here. This should have been a simple fix. When she first felt the dried blood, it should have been obvious that the tooth needed a root canal treatment. Now, fast forward to when she finally did give your husband his root canal. He had an active infection and she only gave him four days of antibiotics, while taking a week to finish the root canal.

She should have given him enough antibiotics to get completely through to the root canal. The way she did it, would mean the infection would have time to flare back up before she closed up the tooth with an active infection inside. That is why he was still in pain.

I’m not sure why she didn’t figure out the issue was the same tooth when he was still in pain. These things do not take time. He should have been out of pain that same day. Then, to do a root canal on an adjacent tooth, which did not have any signs of a problem, was a bit ridiculous in my opinion.

Your husband is still in pain and I would consider it a dental emergency. Don’t go back to this dentist. Instead, I think you should see a root canal specialist and get this tooth taken care of properly.

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