OP here again. Maddykin, I hope you don't mean ME when you say that people have been neglecting their teeth. I have always put health first and that includes my teeth. I've always had a cleaning every six months, I floss, I brush, and I have all my teeth and I am probably MUCH older than you think) --all my teeth except for one molar in the back which I lost a few years ago. Even when I've been between jobs, I've kept up with my dental work. And I'm a woman, not a man.
I went to Tufts Dental School because I was going through a divorce and the ex (being a compulsive spender) had spent every penny we had. I went because a lower crown had fallen off, I did not go there for a root canal on an upper molar!!!
I trusted Tufts because I had heard such good things from people and I read raving reviews on the internet. So I did my research. I think I just got a bad student dentist. There was not very much supervision -- a teacher would stop in every few visits and try to pressure me into having expensive BONE TRANSPLANTS! I knew I needed a few small fillings but they wouldn't do them.
I think they are in it for the money and the training for the students but the patient seems to come LAST. I don't think I needed this root canal, all I wanted was to have the crown cemented back on or get a new crown.
I DID ask questions and I DID complain of pain after the root canal but no one would listen to me or believe me. I brought it up again and again. It was like a nightmare. Finally I refused to go anymore unless they did something about this unusual pain. That's when they sent me to their endodontric (sp?) dept where I got great treatment. They re-did the root canal and put me on antibiotic mouthwash. (However, the head of that department told me at first that all I needed was ANOTHER ROOT CANAL, that this was not the painful tooth, it was the TOOTH NEXT TO IT!) Of course I didn't believe THAT for one minute!
Nothing much happened though, except more xrays and more recommendations to stay on the mouthwash. I don't have the pain anymore, just a little bit off and on, but I'm pretty sure it would come back if I stopped this mouthwash. I've changed to a real dentist but I had to wait MONTHS for an appointment with him because he comes very highly recommended.
He, unlike Tufts, told me to have the tooth extracted and to get an implant. At this point, one year after getting this stupid root canal at Tufts (which I don't think I even needed) I still have the tooth, still use the mouthwash and intend to get the tooth taken out. I'm having surgery next week, unrelated to the dental problem, so it will be as soon as possible after I recover that I will deal with the tooth extraction.
I really resent having spent all that money at Tufts, gone through all this living nightmare, and now I have to spend $8000 for an implant. It just goes on my credit card -- I don't know how people afford dental treatment anymore unless they have really good dental insurance.