I got a temporary crown which worked pretty well, except the dental assistants made mistakes and seemed to be on their first day on the job.
For example, the nurse squirted water on the tooth that was being worked on while holding the suction up near my lips, so all it did was suck in dry air, so a bunch of water went down my throat while my mouth was blocked open as far as it would go. It's really hard to swallow when your mouth is that far open with a constant spray going down the throat. If I couldn't swallow fast enough, the water would get into my lungs.
Then I went back for the permanent crown. I had told them the on the first visit that I had a latex allergy. The dental assistant (Abdul) was wearing latex gloves so I told him I had a latex allergy. He said, "Do you get a rash?". I said, "No, I go into shock" (I can die from it). So he changed gloves. Then, while fitting the permanent crown, he pushed up on the tooth so hard that he was squashing the roots (I realized later). I jumped and he said, "Does that hurt?". I said, "Yes". He then had someone else give me a Novocain shot, then continued pressing up on the tooth really hard (he's a beefy guy with huge hands and fingers and he put a lot of effort into it). After working on it for about half an hour, he told me that the doctor would come in and adjust it. Later the doctor came in and started fitting the permanent crown ALL OVER AGAIN (for about 25 minutes). When the dental assistant blew air over the tooth it hurt like crazy, which I realize now was because the roots were injured. The doctor gave me another Novocain shot. I've never needed a Novocain shot when getting a permanent crown. It's always been completely painless, but the doctor wasn't bothered by the fact that I was in pain. I also had the same problem mentioned above where the assistant squirted water down my throat while I had a block holding my mouth as open as possible and making it hard to swallow. Also the assistant at one point sucked up the back of my throat with the vacuum. The doctor told her not to do that. The back of my throat is still hurting now, 24 hours later. Also, I was having some pain in the lower opposing tooth so another assistant took three x-rays, all of which weren't aimed right. They were useless. Then Abdul did another one which worked. When the Novocain wore off a few hours later, my tooth was so sensitive that eating a room temperature banana made it hurt as if I was eating ice cream. I was pretty sure I was going to need a root canal, which would be dangerous because I'm taking osteoporosis medicine, and any major mouth surgery can cause osteonecrosis of the jaw. Consequently, I didn't get to sleep until 3:00am and only with sedatives.
Anyway, when I woke up the next morning the pain had mostly gone so my roots had just been bruised, not broken.
Another really weird thing was all the assistants, who had the competence of a bunch of teenagers, were super confident. It would be comical if I wasn't the victim. read more