Second Opinion – New but Bad Fitting And Painful Crown
Case Report:
This young lady had this crown placed within the last year and has had constant pain since placement. Went back to see her dentist several times for “adjustments” without relief. Finally, after loosing confidence in her dentist she sought a second opinion.
After a thorough exam it was determined that the crown did not fit well – it did not seal around the tooth. Having not resolved the bad fitting crown in time it is very likely that she now will also need a root canal treatment as the tooth is dying because of the poor fitting crown.
The kicker is that when we requested the existing x-rays from the dentist who made this crown it was clear on those old x-rays that the crown did not fit. This is very disappointing to me as we, as a profession, need to strive for excellence at all time. This problem could have most likely been avoided had the x-ray been read properly and the bad fitting crown replaced sooner. Now the patient needs a new crown, with more cost, as well as probably a root canal treatment and a core buildup, both not the most comfortable procedures at times and expensive!
If you have a problem with recent dentistry that is not resolving, seek out a second opinion. Don’t just have a root canal treatment performed without discovering the actual cause of the problem. In this case, if the patient would have followed the recommendations of her old dentist she would have gotten the root canal treatment they prescribed and not redone the crown. This would have been a fatal mistake as the bad fitting crown would continue to decay and cause even more significant loss of tooth structure!
Keep Smiling.