The term root canal often evokes images of a painful procedure, making many people anxious about the treatment. Despite root canal therapy generally being less uncomfortable than anticipated, the mere thought of it can cause significant stress. Imagine someone already anxious about dental work walking into a routine appointment, only to experience an unexpected mishap. That’s exactly what happened to one woman in the US, who ended up with her “teeth shaved off by mistake” during what was supposed to be a standard dental visit.
Tennessee native Caitlyn Weld was in Florida as a student and had to go through a root canal at the age of 18. The content creator claims that her existing teeth are “not real” in a video that was uploaded to TikTok earlier this month.
In an explainer on TikTok, Caitlyn, who is now 22 years old, acknowledges that she was afraid and said, “I was scared, so I asked the lady as we were in the room ‘What does a root canal feel like? Is it going to hurt, can you explain to me the procedure?’ But she didn’t speak very well English so I never really found out.”
Caitlyn admitted, “I didn’t have a mirror during the whole thing, so I couldn’t see what was going on.”
When the dentist revealed that her small stubs were the remnants of her natural teeth, he asked her what colour she would want for her veneers.
Caitlyn requested her friend to choose the shade while she attempted to digest all that had transpired.
She proceeded to say that the dentist had emphasised the safety measures they needed to follow. Allegedly, he informed her that due to the extent of the hole in one of her teeth, they had to ensure it wouldn’t happen to the other teeth.
Caitlyn said that the dentist went so far as to persuade her, saying that girls of her age often like their teeth to be the same shade throughout, with no one tooth being noticeably brighter than the others.
“They made it sound necessary, we didn’t know any difference,” she said.
In her account of living with veneers, Caitlyn said that the pain she felt when the temporary ones were removed and air struck what was left “was probably the worst pain I’ve ever seen.”
She did not file a lawsuit against the dentist either, as at the time the dentist’s justification was sufficient to get it dismissed.
In the United States, a root canal costs roughly $1,000 (almost Rs 84,000) per tooth, whereas a veneer costs over $40,000 (almost Rs 35 lakh).
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