To put that upfront for this doctor, who is commenting relentlessly: sometimes you get only one chance. This is sometimes.
Oh the quest for a dentist in Los Angeles, an ever ongoing tale.
I was referred to this one by colleague dentist Alexandre Tavitian from one day to the next, apparently they work somehow affiliated. Sadly I cannot recommend either at all.
Here is why:
after an old filling had fallen out Dr. Tavitian had decided due to the x-ray and alleged soft material I needed a root canal and very urgently so. He refused to try drilling, as he feared hitting the nerve or breaking the tooth. Makes one worry about his drilling technique, but hey, know your limits, right? He had just the guy, conveniently right near my home, Dr. Davoodian. The fact that I had no pain whatsoever did not matter to either doctor.
Dr. Davoodian took once more x-ray pictures, although the same pictures with the same technique had been taken the day earlier and I had been told, the file had been sent to the office, this turned out not to be the case. General health concerns about x-rays pictures seem of no concern.
Whilst this was covered by my insurance still it is extra $$ in the pocket of anyone who takes x-ray pictures, no matter if necessary or not.
On neither of the x-ray pictures it was possible to see IF there was any cavity or caries and IF it was near the root, because the technology both offices use allows allows only frontal views, in other words: taking these images was useless, twice.
Dr. Davoodian told me then he would perform a root canal.
Upon asking for possible risks, he stated, "There are no risks at all. We will take the nerve out, fill it, and Dr. Tavitian will make a crown to seal it. The nerve in a tooth is only needed during childhood when the tooth is growing, at adult age it is like an appendix and no longer needed."
The nice lady upfront conveniently called my insurance which would cover half of it.
When I asked why they suggested a root canal although there is no pain and the x-ray pictures do not show a good angle to judge if there is any caries at all and if it is near the root or not Dr. Davoodian said "We say so based on our professional experience." Impressive.
I went home and googled "root canal" and learned the things that are plausible also without googling, based on common sense. If this applies to you too I strongly suggest, do your homework before you go in for root canal treatment (or any other major) treatment, irrelevant if your insurance covers it or if you find the dentist friendly.
In brief: it is a risky treatment; apparently is tricky to remove all infected pulp and you might get issues like new infections later, i.e. a year after the root canal, the root is very much needed no matter what age the tooth; removing it is not preserving or saving the tooth, but killing it and leaving a dead stump in your mouth; as opposed to pulling the tooth this has the advantage that your opposite jaw has something to bite against; the procedure should be avoided if possible and can therefor not be compared with an appendix-removal at all.
Learning all this I finally decided I have had it with unethical or not up-to-modern-standard LA dentists and no longer want to try around, and made the effort to go outside of the city, despite the extra effort and costs involved.
Never in my life I have been more glad to do a thing like that.
The next dentist (who also lives far enough not to be affected by the LA YELP craze, that makes businesses do the strangest things for 5* YELP reviews) had more modern x-ray machines, that were able to take also top-notch pictures from all sorts of angles (convenient!), and was also a confident driller.
He carefully removed all soft material, tested for unexpected left overs twice with dye and replaced the broken filling with no further drama. No big deal.
I was told, irrelevant of what unfortunate angled x-ray pictures one was working with, one would be able to see any swelling or abscess on the tooth and on the old or new pictures were none to be seen. After all was done I was told, the caries was "nowhere near the root."
(Memo to self: it is all possible!)
Basically this is not a bad or good hair-cut. I am most interested in preserving any tooth structure as long as possible, and avoiding unnecessary risks or costs, such as an abundance of x-ray pictures (i.e. taking twice the same set of pictures from one day to the next seems to fall into that category). I am in need of professionals that share this opinion and work accordingly.
Why suggest to people root canals in a such a situation that are totally unnecessary and tell them when asked "there are no risks" and "the nerve is not needed"?
There is one of these fun-postcards out there, where people match vintage photos with texts, it says "Uncle Eddy used to say, 'Now that the cigarettes are already made, we have to smoke them." Especially, if one runs a cigarette factory. read more