Need Advice About My Dentist (root canal)?

January- was feeling the pain. 1st appt I could get was the 1st week of February.
I live in the middle of nowhere & this is the only dentist in town (Moved from Los Angeles where dentists abound!)

Dr Country Dentist said I need a root canal & my tooth is abscessed. Gave me antibiotics & sets appt a month later.

March- I had my 1st portion of the Root Canal Treatment. I've had root canals before... all seemed well so far. Next appointment was set for MAY! I was thinking that was an awfully long time... but hey, he's the dentist...

I went to my 2nd treatment appointment yesterday. It is not finished!!! Now I'm starting to wonder what is up. He says I need to come back in AUGUST. What??? My other two root canals were finished within a month back in CA.

7 months to treat a tooth?
Am I seeing a Bumpkin Dentist?
Should I drive 100 miles to the big city?
Is this normal?
Its prepaid- he isn't going for additional $$.
Just worried he doesn't know what he's doing! 7 mos?

Additional details: If this was L.A. I'd think he wanted more $ - out here it is 1/3 the cost. ALL PREPAID. He isn't getting any more money than what he already got which was less than $600.00.

WTF?!

BEFORE you tottaly give up on him.
go to at least 2 more dentists and get other opinions about it.
because that dentist just might be doing that over and Over and OVER again just to make money.
because you and me and everybody else knows that they make $$$BIG BUCKKS$$$.
they just want their money.
that's all.

Run away run away, I have had several root canals and all were done in 2 appointments within a months time, two at the longest and that was due to the winter holidays. I'm sorry this was pre-paid but this is a very unusually long time for him to take. Good luck.

He may be a bumpkin, but I doubt it. My husband had an abcessed tooth and needed a root canal. He had to go back 3 times to finish up the root canal and the appointments were spaced far apart to wait for the infection to clear up. Sometimes tooth infections take a long time to clear up.

If you don't feel confident in your dentist, then you should go see someone else. But I think your dentist is doing an OK job. Talk with him and ask him why its taking so long, I'm sure he will explain it to you.

Seven months is an awfully long time, and I imagine the expense is making you crazy. I've had a few root canals myself, but none that took this long. Sometimes I would have to wait for the infection to clear out of the tooth before the dentist would perform the duty. Of course, it didn't take months for this to happen. Not sure if this is your case, but it is something to consider. Small town dentist might also be backed up, so that is why his schedule seems so spread out. The repeated visits are suspect, though. I agree about going in for a second opinion. It might cost you a little, but you want to be able to be comfortable with your dentist (as hard as that is), and this guy seems to be leaving you with a bad taste in your mouth (and it's NOT the gloves that are doing it this time). Tooth pain is nothing to laugh about, and if this happens again, don't you want to feel confident when you go in for treatment? Good luck!

Perhaps he has a long waiting list, you know being the only Dentist in the area. However, I would advise you to get it done else where preferably by an Endodontist.

YOU ARE NOT BEING TOLD THE FULL STORY. He has a duty to tell you all that is going on, and if you leave his office with unanswered questions in your mind, he violated his legal duty to you.

This appears to be a case where he was negligent and reckless in the way he made the canal.-----
he cracked the tooth by using too large a drill or not making the canal in the right place, so that the heat of the drill or him making the canal too close to the tooth wall led to the tooth cracking from the heat of the drilling process. If that happened , and he didn鈥檛 tell you of the crack, it is FRAUDULENT CONCEALMENT for which you can sue for plenty and not get just the damages of losing your tooth (that鈥檚 whats got to happen if the tooth cracked) but you can also get punitive damages over and above what you get for your injuries and suffering. These dentists are no fools. They want you to be steered his cohorts who will back him up to cover up the fraud if you sue. So, get not just your own choice of dentist to fix the problem if it can be fixed, or to extract the tooth if that is the end of it all, but also get a malpractice lawyer to take this cheater to the cleaners. His malpractice insurance company will have to pick up the tab for the $$$ you have coming. Just watch out for the dentist who stops before he completes the root canal and tells you to come back in a week or two or even longer or refers you to another dentist when your problems surface. That's a sign he ruined the tooth; the tooth cracked and he wants to conceal it from you, so when you come back you will be told he found it cracked and accuses you of eating something real hard that caused the crack, not his negligence and malpractice. If that happens to you (and it happens all the time), go immediately to another dentist and ask him to tell you what's wrong with the truth. If the second dentist is truthful, he will disclose to you that the tooth is cracked. Dont tell him the name of the dentist who damaged the tooth; he may call that dentist u p and the two will conspire to mislead you into thinking it didnt happen when the first dentist did it. The first dentist probably drilled off the required path of drilling or used too large a drill that heated up the tooth, weakened it and it cracked.
The guy PUTS YOU O FF TO AUGUST TO MAKE SURE YOU HAVE PAIN LATER ON AND HE CAN SAY IT ALL HAPPENED WHEN YOU ATE SOMETHING HARD. ACTUALLY IT WAS HIS MALPRACTICE AND FRAUDULENT CONCEALMENT THAT GENERATED YOUR FUTURE AND PAST TROUBLES!!!!
Good luck. You are dealing with treacherous people