Has anyone heard of a dentist knocking a tooth or putting maybe dry ice on it to!


Question:

Has anyone heard of a dentist knocking a tooth or putting maybe dry ice on it to see if it was sensitive?

I have a large cavity due to a lost filling. I've just recently had some pain with it. The dentist knocked on my tooth and surrounding teeth with some instrument to see if it was sensitive. Although it was not painful, it was uncomfortable. He then took something like dry ice and placed it on each side and on the top of my tooth. This did not hurt. He said I had a dead nerve and would require a root canal. Could he have killed a good nerve with the dry ice?

Additional Details

4 weeks ago
Of course, he gave me the number of an oral surgeon that he uses.


Answers:

That is called, "sensitive to percussion" when he tapped on it. It is a common practice. The tooth will be uncomfortable if it is dying. The ice is also common practice. Think about it....if you bite down on ice cream, normally you get a cold sensation and pull back. If the tooth did not react to the intense cold of dry ice....IT IS DEAD. He did not kill the nerve, it was already in trouble from the bacteria invasion of the cavity.
If the decay was too deep or too much of the tooth was gone, then he would need to extract it, otherwise try to fix it with a root canal and crown. This is expensive, but so is replacing it later after an extraction.




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