Hi,
I just would like to share my great dentist experience: I had a toothache back in February and had it seen at a low-cost dental clinic in Aigle. I was given a quote for a root canal treatment and a crown, for CHF 2400, if I remember right. The pain eventually receeded, or put it this way, the quote was more painful then the tooth... So I stupidely "forgot it", until one the long bank holiday weekends in May when I painfully realized it needed urgent attention.
After many unsuccessfull phone calls in France (I am French...) where I was told I had to wait 2 weeks for an appointment, I googled around and contacted the Dental Quality Clinics in Domodossola (only 1h 1/4 from Thun on the train, where I live).
They told me to come on the same day, they saw me after their last patient in the afternoon, and they did the root canal treatment on that day, so I was happy.
Anyway, I paid 800 euros for a root canal treatment and a crown. I am very happy with the job done. They are very modern and clean, extremely meticulous, super friendly and they speak more or less all languages. Absolutely perfect.
If you add to that a nice lunch on the Piazza every time, good wine, great coffee and this italian "je ne sais quoi", it makes going to the dentist a real pleasure. Well, almost...
First time I am posting on this forum. I hope this tip will be useful to someone.
Alain
Welcome to the Forum Alain, that is an excellent first post!
Next time you could go to Bern, this praxis is open every day,
http://www.zahnarztzentrum.ch/de/zahnarzt/bern.html
While I am not questioning the efficacy of your treatment, I was told by a dentist friend a few years back that it is impossible to do a root canal - completely - in a single session.
Would anybody like to confirm or disprove what my friend told me?
I did a lot of research on root canals a while back - had one that failed and had to be redone - and completing one in one visit would be definitely be bad practise.
The correct approach seems to be:
Visit One: have roots excavated. Assuming it's a molar, this should take 1-1.5 hours, and involve the use of microscopes and/or x-rays during the process to verify that all the roots have been located, and all emptied to their very roots. Pack roots with temporary mix, add a temporary filling, and go home to wait for the inevitable 'been prodding about' inflammation to go down, to fully confirm that roots have been thoroughly emptied.
Visit Two: return a week later, remove temp filling, double check excavation goes to very root tips, fill roots, place a filling on top.
Visit Three: return 6 months later and, assuming no problems in the meantime and no sign of infection via x-ray, shape and mould the tooth ready to replace the filling with the permanent tooth cap, either a crown or an onlay.
Visit Four: return a week later to have the crown/onlay stuck in place.
My first root canal was done by my regular dentist; she did what seemed to be a thorough job over two visits, but in hindsight she simply didn't have the equipment - magnifier, etc - to do it properly. When it flared up about 18 months later I went to a specialist. He found that she'd not gone to the root tip on one of the roots - even I could see that on the x-ray! - and that she should never have just put a big filling on top as it was almost certainly going to fail.
Nearly 3 years later, my professionally redone root canal and onlay is perfectly fine - cross fingers...
6 months?!? What a joke! Also, microscopes and similar gadgets (apexlocators etc.) really impress laypersons but an experienced dentist does not need them at all!
Because the dentist was conservative and not out to rip me off, and didn't want to charge me hundreds of francs for producing and fitting an onlay on a tooth that already had a failed root canal, and therefore had a statistically high chance of refailing and needing to be extracted a short while after the second root canal? Maybe your dentist is just out for quick profit, but mine had professional scruples and was much more interested in doing what was right for the patient.
I'm sure you're right - all the endodontists got bilked by equipment salesmen, and then got together post-regretful purchase and cooked up a giant global scam to explain to patients that they need this equipment to do the most thorough job possible when trying to detect the sub-milimeter dimensioned roots. And then, in their spare time, doctored various dental studies and thousands of pages on the internet explaining the same thing. Yes, that's it.
What I am saying is that an experienced dentist does not need cameras, apexlocators etc. to treat pulpitis. Fact!
And doesn't necessarily have to be a specialist in endodontics. Fact!
And 6 months might have been the correct approach in your (isolated) case, however in most cases it takes 1-2 months.
Just had a crown fitted at my dentist in Pontarlier, France. It did require 3 visits, one to identify the problem and x-rays, one to prepare the tooth and gum, fit a temporary crown and take the imprint for the permanent one, and one to fit the permanent crown. I really can't see how it could be done properly in one visit??? Very modern surgery, all mod cons, good looking and very gentle dentist
580Euros.