[Cyberphonics]

I posted a few months ago about 18 and 19 and I think the back of 19 being broken off, I don't remember. My dentist was going to repair the teeth and then put crowns on them but in the middle of preparing them, realized the break was so deep and close to the root that it was causing me a lot of pain even with being numbed.

They finished the repairs and gave 19 a temporary filling and a temporary crown on 18 and I got antibiotics from my doctor just in case even though there was no sign of infection. I had no problem with either tooth at that point and note I also didn't have any pain or eating problems with them when they were broken either.

The specialist did the root canal on 19 and filled it a week or two later and it came out great. Still no problems. No pain, soreness, eating was normal, it was like I had no work done at all on either tooth. Then I went to my dentist to get the first crown put on 18 a week or two after that. Here's when the problems started...

Tooth #18

My first red flag was that the crown wouldn't stay on. Every crown I've ever gotten, the "dry fit" would be nice and tight and the crown would stay on by itself. This one was almost like the crown was too wide or shallow so it wasn't gripping the tooth, just falling off, and he kept clicking and clacking it around trying to get it to stay.

I told him I was concerned about that and the fit and if the crown wasn't made well, the impression not done well, the tooth not prepped properly or something, but he kept insisting that the crown and fit were fine. He decided to cement it first so he could work on it without it falling off.

After cemented, he asked me how the bite felt and I said it felt way too high, not just parts of the crown but the entire crown so that instead of all of my teeth touching like usual, the only tooth touching was the one with the crown and the gap between the rest felt huge.

He checked the crown with the paper and adjusted and I felt no difference. He adjusted two more times and still it was like he hadn't done anything. Finally, the last time, it felt like there was a difference because it felt flatter and some of the teeth on the opposite side were grazing each other again but only on one edge somehow.

I told him the bite still didn't feel right and why and he said he wasn't going to adjust it anymore and to just wait a few days to see how it feels and wait for it to go down. He then put the temp on 19. When I got home, I noticed that he had already taken some of the porcelain off of the crown which upset me.

Later that night, I tried to eat on the right side only to stay away from the dental work and it was awful because the crown on 18 was so high that every time I bit down, it smashed up against the upper tooth and trying to eat even something soft on the high side instead to avoid that, it didn't feel right. I gave up on eating. The office was already closed at that point and now it's the weekend so they wouldn't open again until Monday.

The next day I tried again and to chew slowly but it was the same problem. Even sometimes when I was talking, the crown tooth would bang into the upper one. After a weekend of this, 18 became really tender and sensitive to the point where even the slightest touching hurt really badly and I was worried that the poor fit of the crown and the impacts caused trauma to the root.

I had to go out of town that week anyway so I just stopped eating stuff I had to chew to try to minimize any contact and even tried to keep my mouth a little open. The tenderness remained the entire time but was nowhere near as bad. I got back that following Monday and called my dentist to tell them what was going on. I already had an appointment at 11:30 that Friday to get the 19 crown but I wanted to see the head dentist for a second opinion so they made me another appointment with him for earlier that day at 11.

I came in and found out that they decided to cancel my 11 o'clock appointment with the head dentist and to just make me stick to my main dentist so I went in to see him at 11:30 as planned. I told him what was going on and said again that I thought something was wrong with the crown and he just kept insisting that the crown itself is fine and that maybe my gums are just sore or everything else under the sun. I asked him to just check it and adjust the height and he said again that it was fine (this is why I wanted the second opinion...).

I insisted and he adjusted the crown to a point where the bite finally felt almost normal though the crown itself still didn't feel right on my tooth. He kept saying it was probably just because it's so far back or because my gums are sensitive or whatever else and proceeded to put on crown 19.

Tooth #19

This crown actually felt right when he put it on as far as the fit on the tooth and we worked on the bite, which only felt like it needed a tiny bit of adjusting. But it also felt like it was so high that it was lifting my upper teeth away from 18. Again, he said to give it a couple of days and then come back if it needed to be adjusted again.

When I got home, I noticed that the tenderness/pain was still there only now it felt like it was more towards 19 as if it relieved the pain from 18 a little but now had its own. In either case, I still couldn't eat on that side so I ate on the right and eating only on the right side was starting to give me a toothache in a filled tooth on that side so again, I went back to eating food that didn't require chewing. That was this past Friday.

I already had an appointment with a perio Tuesday (my gums are great btw) so I let them know that I was still having problems and again, preferred to see the head dentist for a second opinion. They said no, they want me to see the same dentist who did the work and he wasn't in until later in the week so I made yet another appointment with him for Friday. That was today.

The severe tenderness has gone away thankfully but there's still a dull pain in the teeth and I still can't eat on them. When I do, the crowns don't feel like teeth, they feel like something out of place that's not meeting my underlying tooth structure properly so it feels crooked or mobile in some way when I bite down and almost like they're going to come right off when I release and then pain starts so still, I can only chew on the right side.

I explained all of that to him today and again voiced concern with the crowns not being done right in some capacity and again, he just said it was probably just my gums or my jaw hurting or maybe my root canal because it's normal to feel that kind of soreness and suction in a root canal tooth.

I again voiced my concerns that 1) that hasn't been the case for any of my other root canal teeth 2) this problem started after he put the permanent crown on and it was fine every minute prior and 3) it's happening on both 19 and 18 and 18 didn't have a root canal so what's the excuse for it happening with that one?

So he then just changed his story and said again that maybe it's just soreness in my jaw or just a weird feeling I have to get used to. All he did was try to adjust the height of the crowns again. Well, needless to say, I can't deal with them anymore because this is yet another new dentist at that place that doesn't seem to be giving me proper care and now that they're blocking me from seeing the head dentist for consultation (which was funny enough never a problem before this...), there's no one there to turn to anymore for competent guidance.

I paid for both crowns out of pocket since having to go back to them a million times maxed out my insurance and I'm positive they just weren't done right in some way but I don't know what to do about it because I've never had this kind of problem with a crown before let alone two.

I've already researched some new dentists and have one I plan to make an appointment with as soon as I can get in but I want some thoughts on what they might say and what questions to bring up. What could be wrong with these crowns and would it be worth it to get them redone? If I did, I read on one dental site that you should have a root canal retreated if you get the crown on it redone. Is that necessary or only in a case where the crown has been messed up for a really long time and there's been more decay etc?

Also, what are the odds I could get reimbursed from my soon to be ex dentist for the crowns, even if it was only a partial refund? What would I have to prove and to who? I hate that I spent so much for something that seems to have been botched.

Last, I keep reading situations where people say that new dentists don't want to touch work that another dentist has done. Will there be a chance that any new dentist I go to will keep telling me I should go back to my old dentist to get the crowns redone? For now, my bite itself feels ok but the crowns still feel like they aren't "on" right and still cause pain if I try to eat on them.

Thanks ahead of time everyone!!!