Many people don’t have a dentist and find themselves in need of one in a hurry. Whether it’s a dental emergency or just time to address aesthetic concerns, it’s essential to do research and find the right dentist for your situation and not necessarily by location. We can not emphasize this enough and even wrote a blog about it.
Read Before Searching “Find a dentist near me”
To further support why choosing a dentist by location may not be the best choice we want to share some genuine cases from patients. These are the stories or people who came to our clinic for help with tooth pain and tooth infection AFTER they were treated by another dental clinic.
Yes, we were able to help. But in each of these cases, the discomfort and additional costs were avoidable if the problem was looked after correctly the first time with proper assessment, digital X-rays, appropriate treatment recommendations, and good quality work on the part of the dentist.
Dental Fillings: A chipped tooth made worse
Laurie had chipped her tooth and didn’t have a dentist. She looked online and searched for “dentist near me” which turned up a result close to home. Laurie made an appointment and had her tooth fixed.
Shortly after, Laurie experienced what at first was cold sensitivity then progressed to pain on chewing and biting and then extreme pain and swelling. She made an appointment at our Oakville dental clinic for a second opinion.
A digital X-ray showed that the filling was leaking. Food and bacteria were entering the root canal of Laurie’s tooth causing a very painful abscess. The only way to treat the tooth at this point was by root canal treatment or extraction to remove the infection. What could have been a simple procedure turned into a much more invasive treatment.
Improper filling on a root canal treated tooth
Mike broke his tooth in half and visited a dentist close to his home which was open on the weekend. The dentist fixed the broken tooth, but after this appointment, Mike was in even more pain. He woke up the next day with significant swelling on his face.
He came to our dental office the following Monday morning, and an X-ray revealed that he had just had a root canal treatment done on the tooth that had broken. The root canal was done poorly, and the root was perforated causing bacteria to leak into his jaw bone.
A large infection caused swelling from the root canal and perforation, and there was nothing else to be done.The tooth had to be extracted right away which alleviated the swelling and pain. Mike needed to get an implant to address the missing tooth. The cost to replace the tooth was much more than Mike had anticipated.
Paying twice for a full-smile restoration
Tanya had a lot of restorative work done to improve the look of her smile. Crowns and bridges were used to restore all of her upper teeth. Before going ahead with the procedure, she got a few quotes from different cosmetic dentists and chose the dentist who was close to her home and offered the lowest price.
About a year later, Tanya started to experience pain and a bad odour coming from some of her upper teeth. She came to our office for help to figure out where the pain and the smell were coming from. On examination, it was clear that her crowns and bridges were very poorly done causing extensive food impaction. Bacteria and infection were present around all of the upper teeth.
Unfortunately, the bridges and crowns were of such poor quality; everything had to be removed and redone. Extensive decay and breakdown to the remaining teeth resulted in a more invasive and expensive treatment to fix the problem. Tanya ended up paying twice for something that should have lasted a very long time.
If you have questions about dental emergencies, proper dental diagnosis and treatment, fillings, root canal treatment, full-mouth restoration, or are curious to find out if Dr. Agatha Bis is the right Oakville dentist for you, call 905-338-6684 or fill out the form below.