Hi there:

Here's a breakdown of my problem: My dentist drilled a hole in the floor of my mouth under my tongue because the drill accidentally slipped while drilling a molar. Ow. It was a very deep hole, and thus is still fairly uncomfortable 2 days later, and as of yet, doesn't seem to be infected, but seems a little too red for my liking. I'm keeping a close eye on it and being extra-attentive to oral hygiene. Also, I required a cavity get drilled, yet it was in a tooth with old amalgam, so he had to remove all old traces of amalgam. Including some that was previously filling a round hole in my tooth from a previous cavity being drilled out on the front SIDE of my molar. When the drilling was done, and it was time to fill my cavity, he added the vise thingy to my molar (the band that squeezes the tooth together for filling), and must not have seen the original round spot where he had drilled out an old filling. The only amalgam that is there now is what he pushed through the tooth's top opening when filling the newly drilled out decay on the top side of the molar. In other words, there's a hole with a little amalgam pushed through it, but with a jagged edge, and incompletely filled. I also have a sort of faint clicking noise in the recently "filled" (if you want to call it that) tooth, which seems most noticeable when water or air moves around the tooth area. It's also reproducible by pushing gently with my tongue against the tongue-side of said molar, which seems to indicate to me that the filling has a crack, or canal in it due to the shoddy filling job. In the drilling process, he cleared all decay with drill/spoon device (to avoid more painful drilling), and then said since it was near the root he would add a "base" layer before the amalgam. He applied this base layer, then placed gauze between my teeth and said to bite down. He then left me there for ten minutes (to work on another of two additional patients he was seeing concurrently while working on me), to let the base harden. Then dental assistant came over, took out the gauze, and said "It's hardened now." He came back and said okay and started filling, but not before saying he had to clean out some of the gauze that had hardened into the base material.

Questions:

1) Is my filling loose and in need of replacement? Or is there some strange readjustment process that your teeth go through after having work done on them that would cause a similar noise/unstable feeling?

2) How likely is it that I could get some sort of serious infection from the hole underneath my tongue? When it happened, he applied gauze and some topical something or other that tasted really bad and was supposed to induce clotting. It stopped bleeding by time I left, but it was a fairly deep hole, accompanied by a jagged tear in the tissue under my tongue where the drill travelled until settling into drill a hole. Is there anything I can do specifically to lower my odds of resulting infection? Are there any symptoms to watch out for other than redness and fever?

3) I'm not a rocket scientist, but isn't it contrary to common sense to apply a gauze pad to something you're expecting to harden UNDERNEATH a "permanent" filling??

4) Is any of this considered malpractice?

Thanks for reading. I still have a filling to have done (the worse of the two originally detected, and a possible root canal candidate), and I don't think I should go back there, but if these things are just common and unfortunate coincidences that happen to every dentist from time to time, perhaps I should be less concerned, although, if this is so, what assurance do I have that they won't happen again?

Slowly developing dento-phobia!!

Thanks for reading and hopefully responding.

Its hard for me to picture what exactly is going on but I think I know what you're trying to say. First I'd say that if you have concerns with this tooth then bring this up at your next appointment. You may be correct that the cavity may be "underfilled" in one spot. I imagine that the cotton gauze was used to keep the tooth from being exposed to saliva, as I often use gauze for this purpose. As for the hole in to floor of your mouth I'd have to say this; accidents do happen from time to time in dentistry like any other profession. The task of working in a small dark hole which constantly moves due to reflex swallowing, coughing, etc. is very difficult believe me! Even the most diligent dentist will damage soft tissue from time to time. I'd expect the area to heal on its own in a week or so, sounds like it healing normally from what you describe. Good luck!

The dirtiest place in the body is the mouth, so infections can happen fairly easy.

My dentist gave me herbal aloe after working on my gums, which you can get at any health food store. Its purpose is to better/faster heal irritations, though I can't say whether it did that or not.

If there's anything I've learned about dentistry over the past year, it's this: if you ever feel pain at any point, something is being done wrong.

If a dentist slips or does something accidentally, find another dentist. Don't go back to someone who manages to bang you up as bad as you have described here. Sure, mistakes may happen, but this case to me sounds like a bad one (though I'll bet there are those with worse horror stories).

Hello Again,

Thanks for responding. I found the whole experience very unprofessional. I called back to cancel the next appt. and happened to get the district manager on the phone (!) so I told him my story, and asked for a copy of my dental records, bla,bla,bla (so my usual dentist won't have to re-xray me). Then I went to pick them up and the hygienist at the desk looked at me like I had the plague, and I had to shell out $5 . 5 more dollars that is. All of which will probably go towards the next BMW payment. Sigh. Lifestyles of the "professionally" incompetent.

Did I mention that while the dentist was searching for oil subtongue, there were 2 or 3 hygienists standing around watching? Yet I was holding my own suction tube.

I will never go back there, and will make it my duty to tell people of the careless and shoddy work that this dentist is capable of.

I even showed my tongue to the recept. on the way out in case it was worse than it seemed (I wasn't able to assess tongue trauma adequately with the state of the rest of my mouth) and she appeared truly horrified.

The dentist also injected carbocain quite badly in my opinion, as I can feel the injection point even now, a full week later when I purse my lips. When injecting, he grabbed my cheek with his fingers (with the free hand) and shook my cheek roughly while injecting "so it wouldn't hurt as much".

Does it seem unreasonable to anyone else to shake the flesh surrounding a needle that's in the process of being emptied into someone's body?? I would think (and am so reassured by the feeling in my mouth) that such a thing would increase the risk for injury.

But what I know. I drive a Mazda.
:\

I had a dentist inject me twice very roughly once into my cheek and the other right up under my nose. He also shook
my lips roughly with his fingers. It is over
1 year and the point of injection can still
be seen on my cheek and it hurts still under
my nose. I found out he had damaged a nerve
in my face. However, no one was very eager
to tell me what was wrong or offer any help. Afarid to get involved I guess. The pain was
terrible at first and not knowing what was going on was so stressful for me, Eventually the pain became tolerable but it never went away completely. The dentist was not helpful at all. After all i have been through I have lost my faithin dentistry. Before this I had orthodontics and regular scheduled cleanings. Now, I'm trying to just keep everything as clean as possible by using a water pik, brushing,flossing, using peroxide as a rinse and very little sugar so I hopefully do
not have to visit a dentist any time soon. In my opionion THey see to many patients in one day and they get tired and burnt out. They try to work to fast and thats why mistakes happen. Then they seem iritated when you call them for help because you
have nowhere else to go. I know there are
good dentists who do go slow and really care
but they seem hard to find especially since
running a dental office is so expensive and
and they feel pressured to make as much as they can. Good luck to you but it feels like
we are very much on our own.

I managed to find a great dentist who managed to ease my fears of dentistry, but it does often seem to be hit or miss.

Hi Loula and Shane,

I find professional care harder and harder to find. Whether it's too-financially aware HMOs, or people trying to cram the work of three men into the afternoon of one, the pursuit of the almighty buck has doomed us to place greed above ethics. The curse of the capitalist strikes again. How pretty and shiny everything is. At least,in the pamphlets....

To add a positive note, the dentists of the world must have wonderful teeth. For they seem to have never actually gone to one of their peers, at least not any of the caliber of the one I've recently had the misfortune to visit. How else can we explain the gap between expectation of service and service?

Um, it was sort of positive. :\

G'night.

-cindyanne