About six months ago, I went in to have a filling done and after I was already in the chair, the dentist changed his mind. He said a filling wouldn’t be enough and that the tooth needed to be crowned. I went along with it and let him do the crown, but my tooth hurt a lot afterwards and the nagging pain just wouldn’t go away. Then, he tells me that I need to get a root canal as well. During that procedure, I heard a horrible snap. He had broken what he called a “file” and it was lodged in my tooth. He messed around with it for ages and then told me he was just going to leave it there. I couldn’t believe it! I have lost all faith in this guy and my tooth has not felt right since the moment he touched it. I recently heard that a holistic dentist may be able to help me. Is this true, and if so, how do I go about finding one? — Joel
Joel,
Sorry to hear you’re having such a hard time. Yes, a holistic dentist may be able to help you, but it’s worth looking into what happened first. It sounds like the decay had either grown or wasn’t clearly visible on the initial x-ray. As unfortunate as it is, this sometimes happens, and when it becomes obvious to a dentist that the decay is more extensive than he believed it was, then changing course to a full-tooth restoration is the most sensible thing to do.
Files are very thin instruments used to help clean out the canal during root canal treatment. It’s possible it was a faulty file or that the dentist did something wrong, but more than likely it was just bad luck that it broke off. Although it doesn’t happen every day, it’s quite common. In order to avoid traumatizing the area, sometimes it’s best to leave the file in place. The tooth can go on without issue after this happens. However, it would have been good of him to tell you what was happening.
A holistic dentist focuses on how your whole body works together, and will probably have more concern about leaving metal in your tooth. It’s not clear what symptoms you’re experiencing, but if there isn’t actual pain, a holistic dentist is likely to examine all the possible causes for what you’re experiencing, and help you come up with a plan of action. This may involve having the holistic dentist remove the file, sending you to a specialist to have it done, or any number of possible outcomes.
Your regular office should still be able to help with this too, so you may want to contact them first. However, if you choose to look elsewhere, start with a quick Google search and include your city name. Then, call a couple offices to see if you can arrange a consultation. Best of luck to you.
This blog post is brought to you by Des Moines cosmetic dentist, Dr. Phelan Thomas. For more information on the services he provides, please visit his Des Moines cosmetic dentist website.