Patient: I wore braces at 40 years of age for a slight overbite. Two weeks after the bands were yanked off my molars, I needed a root canal and crown. Two years later the crown broke and a new gold crown was put in place. Two years later I am having horrible pain and my dentist sent me to an endodontist. He said that he will have to go in through the gum and remove the remaining nerves. I thought when you get a root canal that there are no nerves left. I didn’t want 2/3 of a root canal. Is this common? The pain has been horrible. I’ve missed days from work and now the bill is $1400 for a tooth that I have already paid for a root canal and two crowns. What responsibility does my dentist that has performed all this work hold?
Optional Information
Gender: Female
Age: 48
Doctor: hi,
thanks for posting your question on health.is.edu ,
A root canal treatment is used to treat teeth that the decay has reached the pulp,
there is no guaranteed 100 percent success rate in any root canal treatment
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endodontic_therapy
the root canal treatment usually takes care of the problem, however it in some cases the bacteria, (which cause the infection) win the battle.
In your case this seems to have been the case
there may be may no nerves remaining but there may be a re occurrence of the infection
since the root canal is several years old, In all sincerity to you and the profession I think your dentist has very little responsibility remaining now,
It is a like a lawyer losing a case in court, you will still have to pay the lawyer fees.
or a heart surgeon performing a surgery on a patient, when the patient has to undergo heart surgery again on the patient or if the patient dies during the surgery the bill still has to be paid
You can try to ligitate the case if you feel there was a problem by the treating dentist,
however that will take a long time.
please feel free to reply if you need more info
Dr Craig
Patient: The endodontist can see part of the root remaining in the xray. Shouldn’t my dentist have seen it when he did the root canal?
Doctor: Hi,
do you mean the canal is underfilled ?
Patient: Yes. One of the three is only filled about 1/2 way down compared with the other two. The endodontist said some of the root remains. Believe me, I can feel it!
Doctor: Ok,
In that case you can have your endo dontist write a letter to that effect and send it to your dentist, you can ask your dentist to bear the expenses for the new root canal or pay back the money for what he charged you
if there is a problem, you approach the ADA peer review committee they will be able to help you
http://www.ada.org/prof/prac/tools/peer_review.asp
there is a contact number at the bottom of the page you can call them for more assistance
best wishes
Dr Craig