The tooth saga goes on...

Three weeks ago my nice new dentist prepared my top right back molar (not the wisdom tooth, that's been missing for years) and the tooth on the other side of the gap for having the bridge fitted. She put temporary crowns on and warned that I meet feel some sensitivity to hot and cold. Did I just! I had a week of being unable to touch it and having to drink through a straw. If anything even vaguely cold touched it, even water that had been standing around and had reached room temperature, it was a major "Ouch!"

A week ago she glued the bridge on and assured me that the tooth was now covered up and there would be no more sensitivity. Wrong! It's just as bad, if not worse, so I had to go back and she was mystified. No decay is showing on the x-rays, so she wrecked my gold crown on the tooth below by filing it down to ease any pressure on the back tooth that might be irritating the nerve. That didn't work, either. She says the tooth isn't covered just below the gum at the back, as they always leave a margin to help with cleaning. And that's just where the sensitive area is.

Now she wants to drill right through my nice, new bridge that cost me £1000, and do root canal treatment. I am in despair. For three weeks, I have been drinking through a bloody straw on one side only, and cutting all my food up small and poking it in the left-hand side. I have a total phobia about root canal, having suffered so terribly in the part. Over the last three years I have had five RT's and each time the dentist has jabbed the nerve and I've been in agony and shaking all over. I can't go through it again unless I am sedated - and this dentist doesn't do sedation.

So I'm back to square one, £1000 poorer and with my bridge about to be ruined, and my gold crown ruined as well, and unable to eat or drink normally. I feel like taking to my bed and crying. However, a close friend's partner has been in intensive care for the last 48 hours and she has been told to expect the worst, so what are my problems compared to theirs? That is a real reality check.