Hello,

I went to my UK NHS dentist a few weeks ago who identified a badly
decaying wisdom tooth (rear upper on my left hand side) . He asked me
if it had been causing any pain at all, to which I answered no. He
indicated his surprise that it had not been causing pain.

He said the tooth would need to be extracted to which I agreed. An
appointment was booked for 3 weeks later.

I had the extraction today, however it did not go smoothly. I was
given no advice to the procedure before hand. He injected the area
with an anesthetic before commencing so my face was totally numb.

Basically the tooth did not want to come out, was deeply rooted and
wouldn't budge easily using the elevators/forceps.  He had a great
difficulty using the instruments to claw onto anything because most of
the tooth was already gone. It took about 15 minutes of wiggling of
the tooth before it came out.

The problem is not all the tooth came out. I saw the tooth lying on
the table and saw very little of the root. I don't know what's been
left behind, but my guess is, most of the root. The dentist said that
the gum should grow over the remaining piece of tooth, and there
should not be any more problems. But if I had pain the future, to get
back in touch.

After speaking a friend, he said the same thing happened to his
father. His father was told the same story about the gum growing over
and everything being OK, but he has had pain on that side of his mouth
ever since the extraction and can only eat on one side of his mouth!
This was with a different dentist.

This is the advice leaflet I was given after the extraction
http://www.unimobiles.com/dentist.jpg

It describes "discomfort" - but I'm in *pain*, period. I found some
more comprehensive information on
http://hcd2.bupa.co.uk/fact_sheets/html/tooth_extraction.html

My tooth was badly damaged but this definitely did NOT occur -

"If your tooth is very damaged, there may not be enough of the tooth
left for the forceps to grip, or it may crumble during the extraction.
In these cases, your dentist may need to make a few small cuts in your
gum to reach the roots of the tooth. Some of the surrounding bone can
then be removed with a drill to lift the tooth out in one piece. The
cuts will be closed with stitches which are usually removed about a
week later.7,8"

The website goes on to say

"However, in order to make a well-informed decision and give your
consent, you need to be aware of the possible side-effects and the
risk of complications."

Here are the problems and questions

1/ I was not told of any of these side effects and complications! I
was very disorientated after the anesthetic and it took my a while to
get home due to all the confusion followed by pain.

2/ Some of the tooth is still left in there! He didn't cut the gum in
an attempt to take the whole lot out. I'm frightened that I have a
lifetime of pain ahead of me only being able to eat on one side of the
mouth.

3/ Should the dentist have attempted to take out the root as well and
cut at the gum to lift out the whole tooth? Given that he knew the
tooth was badly decayed, did he make a mistake using the
forceps/elevators before cutting the gum first?