Ha! I forgot I can't leave before giving you guys the final update from my head dentist. Oh but first Cerec sounds familiar, I think it was saying it was some improved kind of that, thank you so much!

Also thanks for explaining how that place works! I never had a clue. When I first started going there years ago, it was a handful of dentists who were experienced and had such great feedback from the community, really cared about their patients and would have dialogues with you and knew you and your families, etc. So it felt like when I went to a private practice. I had one dentist who cared for my teeth every time I went and it was great.

But once that set was out of there, it was exactly like what you said, they were getting replaced with people who were clearly new and didn't know their left from their right and more got added and now it's like a totally different place all together, like people are just being herded in and out, people just seem like they want to be done with you, it's a mess.

My head dentist is the only one still there like you said and he's the only one that still treats me like the "old days" consistently. I've known him for years and trust his judgment and experience so he was my last hope there in my eyes. It's a shame how things turn out and how money is made off other people's grief.

Mouthwash, thank you! I started experimenting with them because I felt like I didn't want a bunch of nonsense in something I was swishing in my mouth. The three that I feel like my teeth did the best with and that I could always get my hands on were Act, Listerine Zero, and Sensodyne pronamel fluoride rinse.

I prefer the Sensodyne of all because it felt "gentler". I liked it for morning because it feels like it coats my teeth a bit and I've seen a huge reduction in feeling and seeing the effects of acids like if I have orange juice for breakfast with it. The Listerine Zero I use for the rest of the day.

I tried using none and my teeth didn't like that at all because I'd read like you said some saying that you don't really need it but whatever problem I had at the time seemed to get worse so I added mouthwash back to my regimen. Maybe I'll try to only cut back on the Listerine and see what happens.

I try to stick to the salt water gargles for when I'd have aches. Water a clove was soaked in for a while helps tremendously so I had no more need for things like orajel if one of my bad teeth was giving me problems.

I also tried a bunch of different toothpastes. I went through the shelf and looked for the one that had the least extra stuff in it with the max over the counter fluoride that made my mouth feel clean and also didn't make them hurt. Of all the ones I tried, I ended up with plain arm and hammer total care and have seen a definite improvement. I don't know how bad or good it is but it's a definite keeper.

All of crest toothpastes felt like I was brushing with sugar, they'd actually give me more toothaches in my bad teeth, and all the colgate ones felt like I was brushing with nothing. My mouth wouldn't taste clean, my teeth never felt clean, and I seemed to have more build up. There were other ones but for the price none of them worked or felt better than the arm and hammer and many had more dyes etc.

I'm definitely going to be mindful of that and also making sure my brush isn't too harsh on my teeth so I don't increase damage, thank you Bryanna!!!

Final Update

I saw my head dentist to nip this in the bud since everyone else was a bust and he's the only one I can trust to have a dialogue with and who really seems to care and/or know what he's doing. He addressed everything he saw in my mouth and in the x-rays before I even had to ask him. Then answered everything I asked him lol

The root canal He checked it all out with the x-rays and looking inside, testing my bite, tapping to find any sensitivities. He agreed with the other dentist that the quality of the root canal was great and there were no signs of an infection that migrated anywhere or anything but disagreed that my wisdom tooth was the source of my pain biting down on it.

He said it was the height of the filling done on it that was causing excess pressure at its highest point when I bit down on anything that could slow the healing process in addition to just being uncomfortable so he shaved the excess filling down and smoothed it out and said he'll monitor it from this point to see if I have any further problems.

So for now, the test will be what happens the next time I eat. He did say though that he wants me to be more informed about my options with the wisdom tooth and get some guidance since that one is a bit crooked even if I'm not feeling any pressure from it pushing against my other teeth so he referred me to an oral surgeon.

The moving crown He said it was definitely moving (finally someone there not acting like I'm making it up! ). He said that while it has mobility, it isn't loose enough to take it off and the forward/back motion as opposed to an up and down motion would be more indicative of a gum problem than failing cement so he referred me to a periodontist to look at and the health of my gums in general, especially since I get some bleeding when I floss.

And that we'll talk more about how to tackle the crown once I've been assessed. He also suspected from his examination that the gums could be the issue for the back upper left I had the filling in that's been bothering me a bit which I can believe because the pain is more near the gums than "in" the tooth if that makes sense.

The lower left hole He confirmed the bit that I said broke off and that they really were just waiting to get a crown though it should have been better discussed with me and that they'd be fixing and prepping it properly before that but they were holding off on it to take care of some of the other things that were more pressing first.

I asked if it was possible to get it out of the way because it's just really uncomfortable having that gap with stuff going down in it all the time getting compacted and plus it actually makes it harder to floss it because there's no narrow area to guide the floss, it just slides all over the place lol

He said no problem, since we're going to monitor the root canal, we'll delay putting the crown on it and use that appointment for getting started on the lower left instead. And all of the above without me even needing to beg to be informed (this is why I like him lol). So he said he's going to stay on top of this and meanwhile, I made the appointments to see the oral surgeon and perio.

I feel much better now. I won't say that I no longer need to find a new (private) practice because I can't guarantee that he'll always be there to look after my teeth on the days I need them tended to but I at least have a course of action. P.S. The sweet but poorly skilled dentist who was ruining my mouth was finally sacked.