My insurance company approved the replacement of the crown! I just received notification of the approval a few days ago.

The previous dentist, the one who put the crown on that hurt me, either had no record or didn't give my insurance company the record of my returning to have the crown adjusted or my complaints about it. What a surprise!

They said they couldn't determine whether it had been completed incorrectly in the first place or whether it had come loose since it had been completed. C'est la vie - I wasn't going to argue about such a small detail since they had approved it's replacement!

I just got home from my NEW dentist/s office. He showed me photos of how inflamed and irritated my gum had been over the last year+ due to the old crown being placed in a position that sustained pressure on my gum.

I sighed a huge sigh of relief once he was able to pry it off; so loudly the dentist asked me if I was ok. I responded with an emphatic, Uh Huh! (Yes!!) I told him my inclination was to leave it just like that and not put anything else on it! But I knew that was a bad idea and his assistant gave me a temporary crown after they were done getting all the measurements and impressions that they needed so I can get a permanent crown in a few weeks.

Luckily, the new decay underneath the crown that was hurting me wasn't bad enough to necessitate a root canal.

The area really hurt for several hours after I returned home, but it's finally starting to feel much, much better than it's felt in over a year.

I'm hopeful that since I won't have this ongoing pain to have to contend with on a constant basis that I'll have more energy to deal with other aspects of life. Since I have hypopituitarism I have severely low energy reserves... I would much rather spend my limited energy on anything else other than dealing with pain... I'll bet even healthy people would say the same thing!

I 'm thinking about writing a couple of negative reviews on Yelp and Angie's list about the dentist who put the crown on there and wouldn't listen to me about the discomfort and pain it caused me and a couple of great reviews about the new dentist who has helped me!!

Anyway, it all worked out. Thanks so much for your advice!!

Good luck everyone!!

**Make sure you see the dentist every 6 months - my new dentist told me that's the #1 reason people have to get root canals, because they don't go for routine visits to the dentist.