Around two years ago I was in South Africa doing some marine research and around two weeks before I was due to return home (UK) I developed a persistent toothache. I figured it was wisdom tooth related and took some ibuprofen and shook it off. I conveniently had a routine dental checkup booked for the week of my return so I went in and told my dentist I had a toothache. He X-rayed and told me it was nothing to worry about, just normal pain from my wisdom teeth coming in and it would go away. I then went back to my university town, a good 6 hours from my home town where my dentist is and the pain gradually got worse.

It got so bad I wasn’t sleeping and couldn’t eat, so picked up an emergency dentist appointment where I was. I was prescribed antibiotics, given this X-ray, and told very sternly I needed both my upper wisdom teeth removed as a matter of urgency. My wisdom teeth had grown in flat over my third molar and erupted in a way that looked like my third molar erupting naturally (wisdom tooth indicated by red arrow in X-ray). The emergency dentist was worried my third molar was going to keep pushing down, trying to erupt, and crack my wisdom teeth.

I called my usual dentist and they were not very keen to get me an appointment, trying to give me an appointment in 6 months time. Eventually I convinced them to see me within the month and I had the **worst** extraction maybe ever. I told my dentist I had been in a huge amount of pain pre-antibiotics and he said ‘Well what do you want me to do about that?’. I was shocked and said I wanted him to take out my tooth and he begrudgingly agreed. He refused to give me more than one shot of local anaesthetic and when I begged for him to stop pulling on my tooth because the pain was so bad he told me to relax as he was nearly done and I was the one who had wanted my tooth out so badly.

He then refused to take out my other upper wisdom tooth, saying it would be fine and he didn’t need to mess with my mouth. I went back to university only to have to return to an emergency dentist within two months with another excruciating toothache. Eventually my dentist agreed and I had this one extracted in a similarly painful and callous way. 

6 months later I learned he had spotted the same issue in my younger brother and referred him to the maxillofacial unit for an extraction under general anaesthetic around the time of my first, general checkup. My brother had not experienced any pain or discomfort in his teeth at this point.

I had always liked the dentist until this point but I haven’t been back since. I know this is not the right approach but still feeling a little traumatised.

Funky wisdom teeth and terrible dentist