My husband had an accident that caused some damage to his chin and teeth, as well as gave him a concussion. We took him to the ER, then the dentist the next morning. The dentist said everything needed some time to calm down. When it did, one of his teeth started turning dark. Fortunately, he wasn’t in pain. Our dentist said she didn’t see anything and only felt dried blood. From there, she gave him a dental crown. Fast forward a couple of months and he was in severe pain. Our dentist then gave him an emergency root canal treatment. She prescribed him 5 days worth of antibiotics then finished up his root canal treatment a week later. Even after the root canal treatment, the pain continued. The dentist provided him with no pain relief medication. After another week she decided to root canal the tooth next to the one she previously treated. That also did nothing. My husband is in absolute agony and I feel like her lack of caring is border line torture. What should we do to get him the help he needs?
Lisa
Dear Lisa,
Your husband has been through so much and I can tell how much you care about him. Your dentist has made a couple of big mistakes here. First, when the tooth first started to discolor, it needed a root canal treatment right then. I don’t know why your dentist didn’t do one. It makes no sense to me. The dried blood should have been a giant hint that the tooth was dead, even if the discoloration didn’t tell her that.
Next is the way she handled the root canal treatment itself. The way she provided only five days of antibiotics, but waited seven days to close the root canal tells me that she doesn’t understand how these infections work at all. By allowing the antibiotics to run out, she also allowed the infection to flair back up, then she closed the tooth. No wonder your husband was in pain. She never got rid of the infection and closed it up inside the tooth. Then, she did a useless treatment on the adjacent tooth.
Your husband is not being served well by this dentist. I highly recommend that you call an endodontist first thing in the morning. They are root canal specialists and can get this treated correctly. When you call, let them know what has happened so they can get him some antibiotics and pain relief while they get his appointment ready. I’m certain they’ll schedule him an emergency appointment.
This blog is brought to you by Gilbert Dentist Dr. Matt Roper.