My poor husband has been through agony over a tooth that was injured in a rather serious fall. The dentist wanted to wait for two weeks in order to give the trauma time to settle down. By that time, the tooth had begun to discolor. The dentist looked at it and found only dried blood. She felt no treatment was necessary at the time and fit him with temporary crowns. Then, the permanent ones within three weeks.
About a month later, he developed tremendous pain in the tooth. The dentist then determined he needed an emergency root canal treatment. She started him on five days of amoxicillin. That helped for the first couple of days, but then the pain returned in full force. A week later, the root canal treatment was done, but gave him absolutely no relief. When he was still in pain two weeks later, the dentist did a second root canal treatment on the adjacent tooth feeling like that would probably be the problem. He is still in pain and misery and I don’t know what to do. Should we just have the tooth extracted? If so, I’d like to replace it with a dental implant. However, he has a bridge next to that tooth. Will that prevent him getting a dental implant?
Stacey
Dear Stacey,
I am terribly sorry for all your husband has endured. It must have be horrible for you as well, watching him suffer like that and being unable to get a resolution for him. When the tooth began to discolor, it clearly needed a root canal treatment then. Waiting until your husband was in distress with a dental emergency was a very bad idea. If she would have done the treatment then, there would have been less chance of any post-operative complications. I’m baffled at why your dentist did not do one. When she saw the dried blood there, wasn’t that a sign the tissue inside the tooth had died? However, that is water under the bridge.
A second issue of bad dentistry is the antibiotic. While amoxicillin isn’t the ideal antibiotic for a tooth infection, that isn’t the biggest issue here. She should have prescribed it for the entire length of time up until the root canal treatment. Finishing the antibiotic before the treatment is done only gives the infection more time to flare back up and spread.
My recommendation is for you to get a second opinion from a root canal specialist. Hopefully, the tooth can be saved. If it can’t and needs to be extracted, there is no problem with him getting a dental implant.
This blog is brought to you by Libertyville Dentist Dr. David Potts.