I had a smile makeover done. My dentist gave me veneer crowns on my top and bottom teeth. Ten on each. There was some pain after he put the permanent ones on but he made some adjustments and that helped. Then, a few weeks later, I developed abscesses on two of the teeth. He x-rayed them and said the nerves died and I need to get root canals done on those teeth. He referred me to an endodontist. When I went to see him, that dentist found four more teeth that have nerve damage and I’ll need to get root canals on those as well. I’ve got a couple of other teeth that have started bothering me. I’m worried that this is going to be an ongoing problem. I went to see my original dentist to find out what is going on. He said this was a very rare thing that is happening and I must have unusual teeth. Though, he has offered to pay for half the cost of the root canals. Do you think this is going to happen with all of the teeth? Is this rare or something he should have warned me about ahead of time?
Mary Ellen
Dear Mary Ellen,
I want to clear up something. You said you received veneer crowns, but those are two different things. There are dental crowns and there are porcelain veneers, but there are not veneer crowns. Above, you will see an image showing the two different types of tooth preparation. When teeth are prepped for veneers hardly any tooth structure is removed, a few millimeters at most. Dental crowns, which wrap around your tooth completely, require more grinding for tooth preparation.
I don’t know if your dentist told you that you were getting veneers and gave you crowns or if you just misunderstood the terminology. Either way, it sounds like your dentist gave you dental crowns. The prep for porcelain veneers is so minimal that nerve damage would be very rare. With dental crowns, there is a greater risk because there could be pulp exposure which can lead to an infection.
The standard procedure for a smile makeover is to get veneers. If your dentist gave you crowns and your teeth didn’t have extensive decay that would require crowns, I question why he went that route. It could be that he didn’t know how to do veneers. The fact that he offered to pay for half the root canals, hints at him feeling guilty about this. I would ask him to cover the total cost of the root canal treatments.
I’m sorry this happened to you.
This blog is brought to you by Hilton Head Cosmetic Dentist Dr. Bonnie Rothwell.