I’m a bit confused. My husband and I both developed toothaches at about the same time. We were in the process of moving and didn’t have time to deal with it. Once we got to our new place, the first thing I did was try to schedule emergency dental appointments because we were both ready to get out of pain. The first practice I called said they could see me but didn’t realize I wanted my husband seen too. It was a Friday morning, which is their half day. they said they could see one of us today and the other Monday. I scheduled my appointment and then called another practice who agreed to see my husband that day. I figured the upside was we’d get to check out two different dental offices to see what we thought before picking our new practice. When I went, they gave me a root canal treatment, but my husband only had to have a filling. Why the two different treatments for two toothaches? Was mine just overly aggressive or did my husband not get the care he needed?
Karen
Dear Karen,
All toothaches are different. They can be caused by a decay, infection, cracked teeth, etc. Plus, while all toothaches are different so is each person’s ability to deal with pain. Maybe you have a higher pain tolerance than your husband so your toothache had been there longer and turned into an infection, while his was just decaying and needed filling.
I can’t answer your question about overtreatment or negligence without examining you and seeing the x-rays. I’d just be taking a stab in the dark. However, the one thing that concerns me is neither of you seems to have been told why your dentists did the treatment they did.
Dental emergency or not, a dentist is supposed to explain the diagnosis along with your options and their recommendation. It’s up to the patient to say yes or no. So, you shouldn’t have been given a root canal treatment without knowing why.
Finding Your Permanent Dentist
When you start looking for your permanent dentist, be sure to check their reviews so you get some idea of what patient’s who’ve been there have experienced. Also, because the emergency dentist did x-rays (or at least should have), you can have your recent x-rays transferred so you don’t have to have those done again right away.
Though you had to have the root canal, I’m glad you got to the dentist before you ended up losing the tooth. The last thing you’d want to pay for right after a move is a tooth replacement.
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