1st Visit to US Dentist
Sep 13th 2015, 2:30 pm
#31
Under blue skies
Joined: Mar 2011
Location: East Anglia->New England
Posts: 3,624
Re: 1st Visit to US Dentist
I'm an ex dental assistant and ex-hygienist.
I worked with a Harley St endodontist for 3 years....so I know a thing or two about root fillings.
It's usually pretty obvious if a root canal needs to be re-done. It's either not the right length, hasn't had all the canals done, has an old type of filling material known to degrade or there is pathology. These can all be seen on xray. When working, we would always show the patient the problems on the xray and there is no reason for your dentist not to show you. It's not rocket science. If the root fillings are a bit short but you have no pathology then you could probably leave it alone. If your dentist can see evidence of disease then you should get it done asap. If the filling on top is getting worn out and possibly leaking around the edges, the dentist may decide that it's worth getting the root canal done before placing a new restoration on top. You'd be a bit pee'd off if you paid $500++ for a new filling only to have it rendered useless within a year because the rooth canal gave up.
My dentist here in the Austin has replaced a couple of older fillings that were starting to look a bit worn out but they were 25ish years old so no big deal.
There's no reason for a visit to the dentist to be painful. If it is, find yourself a better dentist. Hygienists on the other hand are an evil bunch who love to inflict pain ..........
I worked with a Harley St endodontist for 3 years....so I know a thing or two about root fillings.
It's usually pretty obvious if a root canal needs to be re-done. It's either not the right length, hasn't had all the canals done, has an old type of filling material known to degrade or there is pathology. These can all be seen on xray. When working, we would always show the patient the problems on the xray and there is no reason for your dentist not to show you. It's not rocket science. If the root fillings are a bit short but you have no pathology then you could probably leave it alone. If your dentist can see evidence of disease then you should get it done asap. If the filling on top is getting worn out and possibly leaking around the edges, the dentist may decide that it's worth getting the root canal done before placing a new restoration on top. You'd be a bit pee'd off if you paid $500++ for a new filling only to have it rendered useless within a year because the rooth canal gave up.
My dentist here in the Austin has replaced a couple of older fillings that were starting to look a bit worn out but they were 25ish years old so no big deal.
There's no reason for a visit to the dentist to be painful. If it is, find yourself a better dentist. Hygienists on the other hand are an evil bunch who love to inflict pain ..........
Both my regular dentist and the endodontist did show me the Xray of my "short" filled root canal but I couldn't tell how deep the filling was supposed to go, though I assumed to the bottom of what looked like the root (?). There was/is no problem & no pain with that root canal, so I nixed working on it. My husband DID have pain in his (allegedly) short-filled UK root canal, so both dentists did that work, and he was very happy with that. Maybe that led them to think mine needs similar but prophylactic redoing .... But what prompted him was pain, not the look of an Xray. :/
Last edited by WEBlue; Sep 13th 2015 at 2:33 pm.
