What would you do if you once had a fractured root in a tooth?

X-Rays don’t lie. In fact you are making things worse using the baby-brush. To make one tooth hurt less you are fucking the integrity of all the others.

I could have bought a house in Kansas with all the cash I have spent on dentistry.

@johnpowell So you think I should have continued use of the electric toothbrush that apparently gave me toothaches? That would be very hard for me to do.

I feel if you don’t trust the dentist, get a second opinion. People on a website who are not dentists can’t give you any better advice than that.

No. I think that if it hurts to brush brushing softer isn’t a strategy. It might hurt less but that doesn’t fix your issue.

It should not hurt to use a electric or a hard bristled brush. You will make it worse. I have had a 15K dentist bill due to me taking the same line of thought. It just fucked all my teeth around the problem since I didn’t want to pay the 400 to fix the issue.

@johnpowell It doesn’t hurt less. The toothaches have stopped. I thought that was a good thing. I’ve certainly enjoyed it.
@jca to be honest, I am not capable of fully trusting any dentist or doctor. But the question wasn’t about trust, was it? I was asking if I should tell the dentist my toothaches have stopped but I used to have them when I was using an electric brush. He said a root was fractured but he never pointed that out on the x-ray.

@Aster: For me it would be about trust. If he said something was fractured, I’d expect to be shown it on the xray or some other way. I’d need to see proof.

The solution as stated is to find a dentist you trust. Ask your current dentist for your xrays. I’m assuming he had your teeth xrayed.

Yeah… Ask the old dentist for x-rays. My normal dentist passed them to my oral surgeon for free. They can be around 500 bucks if the new dentist has to redo them.

I would certainly see an endodonist for a second opinion and an expert, specialized diagnosis. Otherwise, I wouldn’t let any dentist extract a tooth, pain or no pain. After the tooth is gone, that can’t be undone.

It’s interesting that the pain subsided after you switched toothpastes. But, you might have simply done the equivalent of changing to shoes that don’t pinch or putting a bandage over a blister. The diagnosis might be correct, and the problem may still be there, but the new toothpaste is gentler and less aggravating.

@Aster ”...you once had a fractured root…” You still have a fractured root. The integrity of the tooth is still compromised, but the nerve is dying to the point you are not having the nerve pain.

Like @johnpowell I avoided the dentist to the detriment of my teeth and health. One of these days you will be feeling chipper and bite down on something a little bit more firm than you were expecting, and your tooth will crack. You may get a nice abcess if the tooth breaks below the gum line.

Of course, since you distrust doctors and dentists, you can just let all your teeth fall out, and save money by not going to the doctor.

It’s all speculation until you get a second opinion.

@zenvelo I don’t have that fractured root anymore since he pulled out the tooth. I have an implant in there now but it’s not finished yet.
I really don’t want to switch dentists unless I absolutely have to. Why? Because he is my new dentist due to his location. He is three miles from our house up a two lane road with no stop signs. Super convenient and I like his personality. His new set of offices just opened.

@Aster: You wrote: “I feel if I tell him they were hurting he’d want to extract them.” How could he want to extract them or it when it’s already been extracted and an implant put in its place?

That was a different tooth.

<is a dentist. You say that the root is fractured and therefore your dentist gave you a hopeless ;prognosis. He’s probably right. it depends on which tooth. ( how many roots), fractured in what direction? Why don’t you ask him to explain it to you and show you on the x-ray. A root fracture is often hopeless, how are you going to fix it? How are you going to splint or hold together a fracture below the gumline, embedded in bone? How are you going to clean out a canal that is now compromised? Your teeth quit hurting when you switched to a baby brush because theyre softer so your’e not irritating your exposed root surfaces anymore. You trusted him enough to have an implant, just have it pulled and get another.