Is this normal?

[Evan Rose]

I had a crown placed on #18 recently. The dentist sedated me for the procedure. As I was in the chair ready for the procedure she appearently tells me that a crown will not help the pain in the tooth and that she thinks I need a mouth guard instead. I mistook what she said due to me being sedated, I thought I needed bother treatments. She proceeded to do the crown. During the procedure, the dentist filed all of the teeth on the upper left row up to my canine. I was confused as to why she was doing this. Upon leaving, I noticed a large chip in my premolar. I asked her later why she filed these teeth and she denies filing the teeth because there would not be a reason to. I am looking at having to restore the tooth now (due to pain) that was previously completely healthy. I feel this dentist made a major mistake. What should I do? Is this common? I am very distraught that she filed (and broke) my teeth for no reason.

~Concerned patient

 

[Dr M]

Good day

It is difficult to give an opinion about your teeth, without any clinical photos or an idea of how your teeth looked before the time. We sometimes file down teeth after a crown is done, to adjust your occlusion or "bite". This is done very minimally, and with the help of certain guides such as articulating paper, which indicate areas that might need adjusting. We often only adjust certain fillings or the crown itself and not even normal tooth structure. If this is what your dentist did, she should have explained this to you. Preferably prior to being sedated.
The fact that she mentioned you might need an occlusal guard, might indicate you have a problem with grinding your teeth, and she might have tried to balance your "bite " more?
These adjustments are usually very minimal, so again, difficult to give an opinion without more information.