I had a dental crown done on a tooth that was fractured. They never told me when they treated the tooth that it may end up needing a root canal treatment or I would have pulled it. The crown never felt right and I complained multiple times that I couldn’t chew on the side of my mouth where the crown had been placed. They ignored that by telling me that it is normal for a tooth to have sensitivity after a crown and to give it time. I did. But it still kept hurting. Then I had another tooth develop a problem and they needed to place another crown. I asked them to deal with the first crown before placing the second but they totally ignored me and I left still in pain with the first crown. I insisted on coming back a week later and they now tell me that the tooth has a periapical abscess and I need a root canal treatment. Can’t I just extract it at this point?

Phyllis

Dear Phyllis,

I am sorry you are facing this. It doesn’t sound to me like your current dentist has your best interest in mind. You are complaining about pain with a dental crown. They blow you off saying it was normal. The type of pain you described is not normal. In fact, when a crown is done properly you don’t feel it at all because it blends in with the remainder of your bite. Can there be sensitivity with a new crown? Yes, but that is sensitivity to temperature, not chewing.

Not only do they not listen carefully to your complaint, but they are more interested in picking up a fee for a second crown than they are in fixing the first. The best dentists want their patients out of pain and completely happy with their treatment.

There are two reasons a crown would hurt when chewing. One is that the crown is seated too high and therefore you are biting down on that first before occluding with your other teeth. The second is that there is a lingering infection there. As you have an abscess that may have been the problem.

You are asking why get the root canal treatment instead of extracting it? In this case, they are actually right. With the abscess you have, all tissue inside the tooth is dead, which means they could drill in there with no pain to you. If you extracted it, on the other hand, you will have a two-fold problem.

An extraction will be much more painful, especially because that type of abscess will make it much harder to get the surrounding area numb where they will be pulling the tooth.

In addition to that, you will have the additional expense of needing to replace the tooth. If you don’t, the other teeth will shift or tip into the open space. This can lead to painful TMJ Disorder later on, which you want to avoid if at all possible.

This blog is brought to you by La Jolla Dentist Dr. Stephen Doan.