Posted by writeradmin
I wanted to whiten my teeth, but my dentist said I needed veneers instead because I grind my teeth. I’ve been miserable since then. They fall off quite a bit and I am a nervous wreck. My dentist keeps blaming my grinding, but I have been wearing a nightguard ever since I got the veneers. Yesterday, I was eating a piece of toast when one fell out. I can’t live like this. Whenever one falls off I have nothing but a tiny nub. One thing I have noticed is that the ones that fall off all the time have a slant on the back. I don’t know what she does when she puts them back on because she always has me take an ativan beforehand, which knocks me out for an entire day. I feel like I’ve lost control of my life. I can’t keep teeth in and to get them back I lose time. Is this normal? If not, is there anything I can do about this?
Lexie
Dear Lexie,
This is quite a horror story. I am going to start with the easy part. No, this is not normal. In fact, I feel like your dentist has crossed the line into malpractice.
First, she did not give you porcelain veneers, despite what she said. Instead, what she gave you are porcelain crowns. The image above shows the difference in tooth preparation for both of them. You said they were like nubs. That is crowns. Additionally, veneers do not go around your teeth. They cover the front and hug the sides. She misled you about the procedure.
Some dentists do not have the training to do porcelain veneers so they do porcelain crowns instead. Usually, they do that by convincing their patient that crowns would be better for them. Yours just told you that you were getting porcelain veneers when you were not. So, obviously, there are some ethical issues on top of the pride thing.
Next, even though crowns are pretty basic and one of the first things dentists learn to do in dental school, she does not seem able to do these either. Most dentists go their entire careers without having one crown fall off, while your dentist can’t seem to keep yours in place. Then, rather than admit the problem, she blames you. You mentioned the ones that kept falling off are slanted in the back more than the others. This tells me they are probably over-tapered.
Finally, the dental sedation is very sketchy. Unles you have very serious anxiety, there is no need for dental sedation in order to rebond on a dental crown. Even if there was, her choice of sedation is over the top. When it comes to oral conscious sedation, dentists generally choose triazolam, which has a serum half life of three hours. That means after three hours, half of it is still in your blood stream. Your dentist uses something with a half-life of twenty-four hours! I would be surprised if you weren’t drowsy for more than a day.
My suggestion is you go see another dentist, an expert cosmetic dentist, who can go to bat for you here. You need to be strong and tell your dentist that you expect her to pay to have this fixed by the dentist of YOUR choice. If she is not willing to do this, then tell her you are willing to take her to court. I believe you’d get a substantial award if it comes to that because she has done a great deal of damage to your teeth. Grinding them down so much has weakend them and put you at greater risk of them breaking. All of this was unnecessary.
I’m sorry this happened to you.
This blog is brought to you by Lafayette, LA Dentist Dr. John Theriot.