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Thursday, February 2, 2012

Shallowford Family Dental Group review and root canal procedure

After spending 5 months with a broken wisdom tooth and 4 with a broken pre-molar, I've done my share of searching for dentists lately. I went through 3 different dentists and finally got desperate and made an appointment with the next dentist on my list that was close to my area. I seen the only dentist in my area first (Dr. Chad Owens) and he was wonderful. However, he sent me to a maxillofacial surgeon in Chattanooga Tennessee which is about an hour away from me. Dr. Owens said my best option was to have the pre-molar pulled and of course just extract the wisdom tooth, but he said I'd be better off to get a dental implant with the pre-molar. First of all, that's far more expensive than a root canal and second, insurance doesn't cover it and I'd read that a large percentage of dental implant patients end up needing at least one more procedure. It just wasn't what I thought was a great option.

 With the severe pain I've felt lately, I was desperate and got an appointment Monday a couple days ago with Dr. David Lewis of Shallowford Family Dental Group. I went in, got x-rays and all that stuff. My nurse lady or whatever was Hope. She was great! Dr. Lewis said that my pre-molar was totally repairable with a root canal and it did seem like a better option than having it pulled (a missing tooth!) or having an implant.

  Today, I had to go in for the root canal on that pre-molar. I will have the crown thing put on when I go back in 5 days as wells as have my wisdom extracted. Now, the point to my posting this is well, for one, my painkillers have me all kinds of chatty and two I spent hours looking for some type of reviews on dentists lately. Last night I was a little panicky and there are hardly any reviews available for things like dentists. The only thing I could find on Dr. Lewis was a small few sentences that talked very negatively about him and his practice. I clicked "read more" as I wanted to know what this "reviewer" had to say about the dentist since I was about to have a root canal by him! When I clicked "read more" it said some mess about paying $18 a month to see full reviews! What? That is total crap. So, I decided I was going to put up my very own honest review about my very own experiences! No, you will not be charged monthly to read my reviews.

  So last night, the night before my root canal, I was nervous. I'm a very... anxious, nervous person that does not do well at any doctor. I'm just so nervous and uncomfortable around people who will be poking and prodding. Plus, I'm kind of nervous around people period for some reason and it's annoying. Anyways, I am particularly scared around men, especially in any healthcare setting. Having a man for a pap-smear is just absurd to me since they can't fully understand. Whoa. How did I get on the subject of men doing pap-smears?! Bear with me, please.

  Point is, I was beyond nervous. I had my root canal done by Dr. David Lewis of Shallowford Family Dental Group only a few hours ago! I'd never had dental work done really except a permanant tooth fixed with some sort of bondo at 7 years old and a quadhelix at the same age. No pulled teeth. Nothing. To say I was a mess would be an understatement.

  The dentist I seen before Lewis, the one Chad Owens referred me to seemed professional and all, but he gave me a valium in an envelope and didn't tell me anything. He just said for me to come back and have both teeth pulled when I had $500! I then got insurance and his office doesn't take it. That's when I found Dr. Lewis.

  I went in earlier and was shaking so badly! He gave me some numbing gel and let me hold it in my cheek for a while then gave me a numbing injection. He did it very slowly so I barely felt anything but a sting. Then thank God, he let me sit for a while to make sure the numbing was totally kicked in and his two nurses/assistants or what ever hung around joking and chatting with me. By the way, it turned out I knew his assistant who was with me today! That made things much better. He came back and game me another injection just to be sure I was totally numb up there.

 A while later he started drilling. I am a chicken you guys! I freak out! So, if you've happened across this post and you're about to have a root canal, rest assured, it's not as bad as people say. I'm hoping to kind of tell you what to expect with a root canal as well as give a little review for the dentist I seen incase any patient is freaking the night before a procedure and needs to know a little about the dentist. Maybe it'll help someone.

  Dr. Lewis and the nurse were very good with keeping me calm and just chatting and joking to keep me calm. The environment is actually pleasant! They've all got a fun but professional kind of manner. What made me comfortable was that he told me if for any reason I was to get uncomfortable or feel pain or just need to stop, to put my hand up and he'd stop asap. He said most people worry that they'll be in pain and the dentist won't stop and he wouldn't do anything a patient didn't want. A nice little conversation where he was making sure I was comfortable and could stop at any time. He also said that if I felt the slightest pressure or pinch that he'd give me another numbing injection. He made it clear that he makes sure his patients do not feel pain.

 Last night I was doing some reading about root canals and came across an article saying that a dentist in Massachusetts, Michael Claire was caught using pieces of PAPER CLIPS instead of stainless steel for his patient's root canals! That blew my mind and scared the hell out of me.

  I have to disagree with the review on doctoroogle.com that said negative things about Dr. Lewis. I've only had one real visit with him and that was today, but I think that site urging you to pay to see the full review was a scam and that's really an awful thing to do. Just wanted to put this out there. Doctoroogle, NOBODY should have to pay to see a review! Also, it's just crappy to use that as a way to get money from people. Ick. So, here I've written a REAL review or at least given enough info to where if someone is considering the dentist I went to, they'll know a little about them. However, everybody is different. I may like one dentist and another person may find that they simply don't fit their needs. That doesn't necessarily make them a bad doctor, but here you go. This was my experience for today with this dentist.

7 comments:

thomasandy said...

root canal procedure is reputed as a painful and distressed treatment. therefore people get fear of it. but this treatment is very important to protect our teeth from decays. nice post. keep posting such articles.

dentists Worcester MA said...

I see lots of amazing points here. Your article is so interesting that I've read it twice, and I will advice my relatives to read it too

Dentists in Grand Rapids said...

Thanks for sharing your experiences. Root canal headaches can be extremely painful; so much so that they may deprive you of your sleep. My cousin got a flawed root canal treatment and he experienced unimaginable pain. I pity him.

Muskegon MI Dental said...

Together with today's technology and resources there isn't any cause to worry about a root canal. Whilst many people try and put off root canal treatment it is not the ordeal it once was, advances in anesthetics mean that virtually nothing is felt at all and whilst you may need a few days of eating soup there is nothing to fear whatsoever.

DDS Kalamazoo Michigan said...

A popular myth is that having a root canal procedure is a nightmare, in the sense that the overwhelming pain from the dying nerve, pulp or tooth itself can't be resolved by any dental procedures.

Bonita Springs Dental Practice said...

Root canal treatments are generally costly, and really should only be taken modestly upon teeth which only need the procedure.

Dentists Grand Rapids said...

Great info you have here. Dentist consultations may be able to help determine if this treatment is right for you.