Quote:
Originally Posted by Live-life
Hi all,
I had gone to a new dental office and had a complete set of x-rays done and the dentist looked at them a long while and said I have 4 cavities. He did the cleaning and scheduled me for next week for the cavities. When I came back they gave me a new dentist and explained that they routinely rotate the dentists between patients and that I might in fact be getting a different dentist every time I come in. I've never had that before in any dental office large or small that I've gone to so that seemed strange to me. But what really got me is the 2nd dentist says instead of having 4 cavities that I have 7 and need a root canal. What do you guys think about the difference of opinions of the 2 dentists looking off the same x-rays? I know what I think, I'm not going there anymore and now looking for a new dentist.
Btw, I had that complete set of digital x-rays done exactly 90 days ago and did have 3 cavities drilled by that 2nd dentist. I'm about to go to another dental office and bring those x-rays with me. Will it matter that they're 3 months old? Will new dentist insist on taking their own new(er) x-rays? A little concerned about all that radiation..
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So, you went to dentist 1 and was okay with his plan.
You went back to the same office and dentist 2 was going to do the work, but he said you needed a different plan that you didn't like.
You waited three months, and are now going to a different dentist, dentist 3.
During either of the first two visits, did you ask them to show you the cavities on the x-rays? Have you looked at the x-rays (you say you're bringing them with you to dentist 3 so I am assuming you already have a copy of them in your possession)?
If you weren't happy with dentist #2's diagnosis and treatment plan, why did you let him do any of the work?
To answer your questions:
1. yes, it matters if they're 3 months old, if you have work that needs done, because decay can get worse in 3 months. If it were just a few weeks it wouldn't make much difference. If your teeth were fine, then it wouldn't matter. Plus, you already had work done on three of the teeth, so now those x-rays are no longer valid. You'll need new ones.
2. I don't know what your new dentist will insist on, or not insist on. No one here knows what he will or will not insist on doing. He should require new ones, since the old ones don't reflect any of the three cavities that were already drilled and filled. If dentist #2 did a lousy job and there's still decay, or a cracked tooth from the drilling, and dentist #3 doesn't insist on an x-ray, and you don't insist on new ones, and 3 months later you have problems with the tooth, who are you going to blame for it? They shouldn't need to take a whole full set. Usually it'd be either a bitewing set, or only the ones on the teeth that had questionable health.
3. The radiation in those x-ray machines is minimal, but they should be taking precautions and covering your torso and neck with a lead-line vest and collar. That's standard procedure. Since they won't need to do a new full set, and only a partial set of up to 7 teeth, your risks are significantly reduced. Bear in mind that the risk of problems from dental x-rays exists, but is very low to begin with. There's a lot of negative hype against them simply because the risk exists. So certain groups like to emphasize the increased risk, without mentioning that the initial risk is pretty insignificant. So - if the risk increases by 100%.. that doesn't mean you have a 100% chance of getting cancer. It means the risk has doubled. And if the risk was only .0005 to start with, that means the risk is now .0010. Still less than the risk of getting skin cancer if you spend a single summer in your life, laying out in the sun.
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