Sounds like incompetence. A good dentist will usually tell you if they can extract a bad tooth or if you will need to go to an oral surgeon.

I see a female dentist, I've been seeing her for 5 years. She's wonderful and honest.

This dentist removed a tooth which had two failed root canals. Years after these root canals, which still left the tooth uncomfortable and sensitive, I woke up one day with one side of my face swollen and bad pain in that tooth. The tooth was infected. I knew the tooth had to come out. It was a lower back tooth, so not a problem.

From looking at the X-rays my dentist took before the extraction, she explained, "This tooth has a fractured root, the two dentists who did these two root canals should never have done them in the first place, well the second one sure shouldn't have been done!" I explained the second dentist was a specialist, an endodontist. She raised her eyebrow.

My dentist was surprised the endo missed that the root was already fractured, "If he used the equipment with the camera built into the drill (which he did, I watched the root canal on a screen), he should have noticed the fracture immediately." I told her, "I knew something was wrong, immediately after the first root canal, my tooth was still sensitive and the second expensive root canal didn't help at all."

On top of the root canal, the first dentist charged me for a post, which should have never been done until the root canal was proven to be successful. I found out from my current dentist, posts are no longer used when getting a cap.

Dentists usually don't like to talk about another dentist's work, but my dentist is very truthful. She also added, "It's great that you had this bad tooth bonded, because you would have also lost money on a cap. The combination of a post and cap would have likely made this infection much worse."

My dentist gave me about 4 shots and removed the bad tooth without giving me the twilight medication. There was no cutting, she was able to remove the tooth without surgery. Her cost to remove the tooth was much cheaper than a dental surgeon.

I would suggest people ask their friends and family to recommend a good dentist or to simply read online reviews.

My former dentist was good, he was great with exams, basic fillings and bonding work, but he sure wasn't great with root canals. He should have noticed one of the roots was already fractured. Some dentists think they can do it all, they can't. Or they simply want to separate you from your money.