"Disappointed and confused by Dental service"

In mid January 2022 I phoned NHS 24 to explain that I had a pain in my tooth/mouth area that was going up towards my eye, and my jaw was locked. I said that it was my very back tooth on my right side at the top. The gum was bulging partly over the tooth that was sore.

On the next day I was contacted by the dentist (I cannot remember their name unfortunately) from the Royal Alexandra Hospital. They phoned to give me an appointment time where we briefly discussed the issue with the very back tooth. 

I arrived at the hospital, and the dentist looked at the back of my mouth. At this point, I mentioned again how it was the very back tooth and the bulging gum that was giving me bother. I was given two options: root canal treatment or tooth extraction. It was explained that they could only do the part 1 of the root canal treatment and I would need to register myself at a dentist and get part 2 done there. At this point I didn’t think I was registered at a dentist.

I was skeptical about the root canal as I’ve previously had bother with this tooth/gum area about 3 or 4 years ago which required a course of antibiotics. That coupled with the fact I didn’t think I was registered at a dentist, and I was worried I would not be able to get registered in time to do the part 2, I opted for extraction. The dentist said they would give me an X-ray just to double check everything but when informed that someone else would need to perform the X-ray, they said that it was no longer required and didn't matter. The procedure went fine, and it wasn’t until my mouth was no longer numb that I realised the wrong tooth had been extracted.

The following day I spent the day in absolute agony and panicking about my missing tooth before my partner insisted we phone NHS 24 again to explain. 

On the subsequent day the hospital phoned to inform me that I was in fact still registered at Bearsden Dental Care, despite not visiting since 2015. I phoned Bearsden dental care and I was given an emergency check up the same day. The dentist could confirm that there is an issue with my wisdom tooth growing in, (the very back tooth that I was describing) and it has caused an infection as well as irritating the gum. I was given two options again, a course of antibiotics to try save the wisdom tooth or wisdom tooth removal. Ideally, I just wanted the wisdom tooth out but considering I now have a huge gap next to it, I didn’t want to jump into removing any more teeth. I’m currently completing the course of antibiotics but it is likely the tooth will need removed regardless.

Looking back, I should have noticed the red flags with the dentist considering the X-ray issue but at the time I thought they knew best. I’m extremely disappointed and confused that the issue with my wisdom tooth & the infection wasn’t picked up on but I’m extremely glad I followed my instinct quickly as matters could have ended up a lot worse than what they are. Not only do I still have the original issue, but I will now need to look into repairing the issue this dentist has created.