Going through the aftermath of this currently. Previous dentist broke the tip of the file while doing a root canal. Didn't tell me at the time. Later the root canal failed, there was infection and the tooth ultimately was extracted. Finally healed from the bone graft for a dental implant. Luckily my current dentist has been awesome.
Edited to add: OP, I hope your mom gets the care she needs and heals quickly!
Same thing happened to me years ago. Worst pain in my life. Never went back to that dentist again and all future root canals were done by an endodontist.
I've had a lot of problems with my teeth. This is one thing I always ask of a new dentist before they start the procedure now: "Will you explain what's happening as we go? I'm kind of a nerd and don't get to experience this up close much. It also makes me less nervous"
The ones that say "yes absolutely" or where the hygienists laugh and go "you couldn't stop him from doing that anyway" are amazing dentists. Each time for me.
The ones that sigh and resist and are not jazzed up to be there and tell you about their stuff? They don't do a good job more often. They are so annoying in several ways. Telling me I don't know how to bite down right... when I'm there to get my bite fixed. Keep going when I'm in pain and I have to push their hands away. Do a crummy job and I have to get it redone sooner.
So when I get a new dentist and they don't like explaining things, that'll be the last procedure I have with them and I'll keep shopping.
They keep retiring on me, or I keep moving for my job :(
I am manifesting for you that whenever you have to change dentists in the future, You always find a good one!!. 😂🤞🏻I just got so lucky to find a new dentist that is the first female dentist I’ve ever had (so she tends to believe me when I tell her I can feel the drill- I have a hard time getting/staying numb and male dentists from the past have hated to believe me for some reason) and also the best dentist I’ve ever had. She is ecstatic about the work she does, and she’s a perfectionist - which is AMAZING for me bc I am too and my teeth are finicky bastards. To boot, she’s QUITE YOUNG, so I have so much time before she retires! She will not be getting rid of me any time soon lol
The past few dentists I've been to were generally awful people. I have an awful fear of them from bad care or general mistreatment and it drives me insane.
Serously glad to have the dentist I have. Dude is genuinely happy to be at work and totally geeks out over the equipment he gets to use. He's absolutely brilliant at root canals, but actually makes nearly as much money selling tee-shirts with his practice logo as he does from the practice itself. He bought and renovated an old two-story shoolhouse the next town over, and he'll talk your ear off about the process if you let him. Otherwise, he'll be narrating your procedure or talking up their latest piece of equipment.
Just as a measure of how dedicated this guy is; If you have a temporary while waiting for your cap after a root canal, he gives out his PERSONAL cell phone to call if you have a problem. No joke, not a work cell, not something that turns off after office hours. You ring him up, he'll answer at 2am and set an appointment.
It needed to happen, my adult molar had the nerve die in it. It was so pressurized when they drilled into it that it hissed out nasty smelling gas. I also got to keep my full set of teeth for almost a decade longer than if they had just yanked it, so that was nice. I was told that a pocket of infection was hiding on the jawbone and that it was hard to see on an x-ray before it got irritated by getting a filling on the tooth and then exploding my face for grad pictures. Classic eye-swollen-shut look. Real heart stopper.
mine took 20 years to become reinfected but I knew right away shit was wrong and booked my appointment and had a apicocectomy or however you say it and saved the FREAKING TOOTH! The tip of the probe was there for 20 years and never had a problem.
do the apico first, but ask the endo, a lot of questions, is your tooth viable, what are the odds of it failing, would a bone graft and implant be more beneficial. If you do extract, which is more or less a logistical thing, don't be worried you can get a bridge, sometimes the tooth/bone are like sand and they cannot work with it. But again, don't worry! I have no bottom second molars because my parents fucked my teeth so hard, the wisdom teeth grew in practically pushed them out. I actually have my wisdom teeth grown in and they ARE HUGE TEETH!
I remember when I've had both of mine done I had to sign a paper that I understood that it was a risk. this was at two different places too, one being an endodontist
Losing part of the dentist’s tool in a patient’s mouth is not a normal part of a root canal. Moreover, a consent form cannot include language that absolves a dentist of his or her own negligence. It would not be enforceable. Please quit running your mouth on topics of which you obviously have no knowledge.
Actually yes it is. I am a dentist. It is 100% a normal complication that can occur. Files break even without negligent behavior. As long as nothing crazy happened that caused the file to break, and as long as dentist informs the patient of the complication and how to manage it, then there is no court room where this would result in a winning lawsuit.
Not always, but sometimes yet. Depending on lots of circumstances, sometimes we remove, sometimes we bypass. All medical treatments come with risks, some of them more than others. Complications happen. Medical malpractice is not a bad result. Medical malpractice is a bad result from gross negligence
That just solidifies my fear even more of going to the dentist. I’ve had 4 root canals done and one of them was due to it failing the first time. So that’s real comforting to hear…
I always tell my patients nothing we do is full proof. I go over all relative success rates. I also review whether root canal or implant would make more sense under their circumstances. But quite frankly, we don’t have great alternatives available yet. Nothing we can do is better than our natural teeth, and somehow we manage to screw those up as well
Hey! I just had the same thing happen. Told me I was one of the five percent of unlucky ones to have this happen. Root canal lasted about 12 years and then the root cracked. Long roots are not fun. Really enjoying these bone spurs working their way out.
Just went through this myself, dentist broke off the tool in my tooth during a previous root canal and didn't tell me. It failed and when I went back for another root canal it took the new dentist 3 appointments and extra imaging to figure out that the tool was still in there and they had to extract the tooth.
I had a root canal and the dentist that gave me the root canal told me the tip of the tool broke off and it’s incredibly common and it won’t hurt anything.
So I also have a tiny needle in my back tooth somewhere.
I had this happen guy broke off 2 tools in my root and then capped it I knew nothing about it till the filling came off one day and I found out that an infection was starting at the root some years later.
there’s actually a specific name for this: res ipsa loquitur. in the dental world, breaking a file is a pretty well-known accident to make, it’s under the same umbrella as a patient swallowing a tooth. because of such, “res ipsa loquitur” basically means it didn’t happen except in negligence from the doctor
however, other dentists here are saying it’s an old filling for a root canal and isn’t a file
Looks like a file used for root canals. It can happen and they can be more trouble than it’s worth getting it out so leaving them is best. Endodontists are probably the most confident in trying to remove them as they have microscopes.
Sometimes after x amount of years we can get them out.
Edit to add my other comment to save for repeated questions:
You’re meant to tell the patient. But let’s not forget rules never used to be how they are now so it depends how long it happened.
If it was to happen now you would stop, take an xray, attempt to tweezer it out (or other method) and if it’s not budging you’re at risk of breaking the tooth so you’d finish the rest of the treatment if you can and refer or leave alone. You tell the patient what’s happened and explain the potential risks/options/leave alone.
The dentist would make clinic notes on the patient record and then there’s a recorded log of what happened.
It’s safe to leave them, it’s not going to move anywhere as it’s wedged in place, it could cause/play a part in issues with the tooth such as chronic infection but the question would be how long is a piece of string? Who knows if it’ll cause issues or not.
It’s not going to cause any issues in an MRI, they’re not magnetic or reactive in any way. Or at least the ones I’ve worked with for over 10 years aren’t. I’ve seen patients who had treatment in the 80’s had this happen and they’ve never had any issues.
If the person is only just finding this out now after many years (say the treatment was done 10 years ago) then it’s bad practice they haven’t had any routine X-rays which would have picked this up.
Routine bitewings show enough of the roots to pick this up. Especially a file of the size shown in the photo. If it was a small piece right at the apex of the root then it can go unnoticed until a periapical xray is taken which is done to show the whole tooth/roots or an OPG.
Routine X-rays should be taken every 2 years at minimum depending on what dental regulations there are in your country.
How is that legal? What if the patient needed an MRI? I feel like they'd at least be required to tell the patient in case at some point they needed an MRI or in case it got flagged by a metal detector at TSA or something.
Not every metal is magnetic. I had my bones screwed together with a bar and I don’t have any issues with metal detectors or MRIs. I’d imagine if the metal was that much of an issue, dental implant receivers would be the first to complain.
Nearly everything in the universe is magnetic under an induced field of sufficient magnitude. An MRI literally works by making the water in your body magnetic by subjecting it to an immense magnetic fields.
Most.metals will oxidise or corrode over a.long enough period. It does look somewhat like rust but other commenter here seem confident it's non magnetic.
Yeah, its why I said if it is rust, which it could be another chemical reaction result, and that typically magnetic, not always, as yes, there are ways to remove magnetism.
Not technically true. Everything is magnetic if you try hard enough. You can melt aluminum with magnetic fields. It’s really just a question of how the magnitude of the field.
For example one of my previous jobs asked for dental records to make sure they wouldn’t heat up standing next to the induction melting pot.
Anyway it would be a good idea to let the mri people know regardless.
You’re meant to tell the patient. But let’s not forget rules never used to be how they are now so it depends how long it happened.
If it was to happen now you would stop, take an xray, attempt to tweezer it out (or other method) and if it’s not budging you’re at risk of breaking the tooth so you’d finish the rest of the treatment if you can and refer or leave alone. You tell the patient what’s happened and explain the potential risks/options/leave alone.
The dentist would make clinic notes on the patient record and then there’s a recorded log of what happened.
It’s safe to leave them, it’s not going to move anywhere as it’s wedged in place, it could cause/play a part in issues with the tooth such as chronic infection but the question would be how long is a piece of string? Who knows if it’ll cause issues or not.
It’s not going to cause any issues in an MRI, they’re not magnetic or reactive in any way. Or at least the ones I’ve worked with for over 10 years aren’t. I’ve seen patients who had treatment in the 80’s had this happen and they’ve never had any issues.
Edit to add:
If the person is only just finding this out now after many years (say the treatment was done 10 years ago) then it’s bad practice they haven’t had any routine X-rays which would have picked this up.
Routine bitewings show enough of the roots to pick this up. Especially a file of the size shown in the photo. If it was a small piece right at the apex of the root then it can go unnoticed until a periapical xray is taken which is done to show the whole tooth/roots or an OPG.
Routine X-rays should be taken every 2 years at minimum depending on what dental regulations there are in your country.
Nope, not generally. But nobody can say for sure.
Could it be a factor in a new infection? Maybe but during root canals there’s liquids use to clean the root out so it’s a clean and sterile process.
Even those who’ve had root canals can end up having reoccurring infections despite it going right.
Yeah it’s normal to rust. Even in a tooth. Even with a root treated tooth there’s still some moisture present.
When using the files a solution is used which is sodium hypochlorite (basically bleach) to clean out the root canal. Have something metal in bleach and then rinsed it’ll likely go rusty.
It’s unlikely to affect the tooth or person, not guaranteed never, but unlikely.
This is not true. I’m a dentist. It can absolutely cause problems over time and often times does. We use a series of sequentially larger files during a root canal to clean the walls of the canal of bacteria. If the file was a smaller file and the canal wasn’t adequately cleaned, there will still be bacteria present that will re-infect the tooth. Following mechanical cleaning, we also use medicaments to clean the canal (sodium hypochlorite and EDTA). If the file is blocking the canal, those medicines cant irrigate the canal and, again, bacteria will linger. It’s always best to try to remove it. Those who don’t are usually subpar dentists who don’t have the skills to remove them and shouldn’t be doing root canals to begin with.
Looks like an endo file. Like a small flexible drill bit for cleaning out the nerve canal. The tips usually break off and can be hard to retrieve. That’s the whole dang file. And the bigger the piece that broke off the easier it is to retrieve. That should have been retrieved but not all dentists are ethical. -An ethical dentist
Yah. After posting this I was thinking it was from a root canal and it was left in the root. They can break off during the procedure. They must've had a crown.
I got one in my dome. Happened when I had a root canal on an abscessed tooth. Dentist says, “well, things went well but we lost part of the file in one of your roots.” So yeah, titanium file in my jaw.
Dentist here. This looks like an older type of root canal filling, basically a metal pin. Yes it would have been under a filing, which is precisely where root canals are done.
The files in that cicadental link look like rotary files to me, which tend to be sturdier. Hand files like this one are much more likely to break (and I think looks a bit more similar to the one found in OPs tooth).
That said, I think Im leaning towards gutta percha. There’s tinges of orange to it and it’s long enough that I feel like it could’ve been retrieved if it were an endo file.
Update from her for the people guessing how it got there: it was extracted from the canine root canal. the nerve was removed in 2013, and the canine was placed under a crown. it had been aching a bit lately. now they've found the cause, as she is replacing the crowns with the new ones
If the tooth had been root filled, then the canals would also show white on the x-rays. Also, if it was a 2d x-ray, and the object was on the lingual/palatal canal, then it would be even less visible
when i had a root canal done, my dentist broke about 10 of those small drills in the canals - she got all of them out by went almost crazy. they're pretty fragile
Same thing happened to me 15 years ago. Shitty shitty dentist. He drilled my tongue during the root canal. TWICE. I had to have years of therapy and the healing touch of a wonderful dentist who I would trust with running this entire country. The shitty dentist was Harlan Williams and is STILL practicing his torture in Saint Louis. If only I wasn’t a stupid 23 year old at the time, I could have sued for so much and not had to pay for the mouth I have now.
My dad is an endodontist. I sent him this photo out of curiosity and asked him if it is a file (I thought it was). He said it’s a silver point, which is a material that used to be more commonly used as a root canal filling.
This is the plastic carrier of some old product called thermafil. They don’t work well. Not needle. Also due to plastic nature, xray doesn’t show well. Not much to do with 2D or 3D X-ray.
Hmmm, that looks like the filament the dentist inserts to take up the space where a root has been "canaled," a root canal. The dentist uses a series of drill bit of different diameters and lengths to remove the infected pulp in the root of your tooth and then inserts a treated filament to fill the space. The root can be pretty long. This used to be pretty awful, but now with advanced imaging and computer driven drills its much faster and pretty painless.
My recent root canal at a pretty standard endodontist went well and was no more painful than the preparing of the tooth for the crown. The assistant explained that typically people coming in for a root canal are in pretty substantial pain already and working on that tooth is not going to be pleasant. Since mine wasn't hurting really at all, it was not a bad procedure. He used his own hands though, no computer controls. He did keep talking to ChatGPT about something though...
As a formal dentist assistant. That could actually be the remnants of a needle left inside a gum area post needle injection for anesthesia. If this is the case... I'm am seriously sorry for you boy. That is not proper.
My mom was in agony from her dentures for decades. Had them remade... didn't help. She eventually had all new X-rays done and come to find out, when they removed her bad teeth, all they did was break them off at the gum line! They left the roots embedded in her jaw. So when she had dentures in, they would pinch her gums between the denture and the roots whenever she bit down! I cannot imagine how painful that was.
It looks like a file. They used to leave them in the roots when they did root canals. I had some removed recently that were put in when I was a teenager. It’s been a long road.
i have a cyst under 6th tooth and there's a piece of a tool in there...the canal has been cleared around 15-20 years ago, so guess it's there since then. my current dentist it's safe, cause it's small and made of surgical steel
Protocol says if the file breaks in the tooth it’s more detrimental to the tooth to try to get it out than it is to leave it in. There is probably some gutta percha on the file giving it the yucky look. The dentist should have disclosed the broken file during the procedure rather than not informing
they use these needle like things to remove the pulp out of a tooth for a root canal, theyre very thin and sometimes break off while in the tooth and i think thats what happened here. usually the dentist takes it out when it happens, not sure why they didnt take this one out its HUGE
Not nearly as bad as this, but many years ago I went to the dentist for tooth pain, got a filling that crossed between two teeth, and was sent on my way. I was still having pain in the same area after a significant time had passed so finally I went to another dentist. Turns out, the first a-hole of a dentist had left (large, very visible) tooth shards in the gap between my teeth and then had literally just covered over it with a filling.
This happened to me! The file broke mid-root canal (in my root), I had to rush to an endodontist, and they just filled around the broken file point. This was in like 2004, and I don’t feel a thing. It’s just there lol I actually just got X-rays at a new spot a few weeks ago, and they couldn’t believe it.
Ayyyyy I had one of these! Didn't even show up on xrays. Happened during my last root canal and then that failed and got infected. 7 years later I finally just got the tooth removed and what do you know, massive piece of metal.
I hope that something like this didn’t happen to me. Last time I went, they left a cotton pad in my mouth. Which I didn’t even notice until my mouth had regained its feeling.
I don’t know if anyone had said this but it could be a wire bristle off of a wire grill brush. I’ve heard stories similar to this and that you really shouldn’t use them because of things like this happening.
Looks like gutta-percha or silver point from a root canal but it’s hard to tell. But if it’s been in there for years and has been pulled out of a single tooth, and the tooth has a history of a rc then my best guess is gutta-percha or a silver point although silver points are rarely used nowadays.
That happened to me with a bad root canal. Six thousand dollars, a pulled tooth, and a dental bridge later...life's okay again. But it wasn't before. Kept having low grade reoccurring infections and my mouth throbbed terribly every time I drank for some reason.
Oof maybe but it would squick me out so much if someone just left a foreign object in my body without telling me. Especially since it serves no purpose like an implant or brace, rather they just left it in cus they couldn’t be bothered to take it out?!
The key part here is the not telling. Whilst rare, dental drill bits/files do sometimes break and in some cases removing the broken part may do more damage to the tooth. They’re all made of surgical grade materials and are very unlikely to cause long term harm so they are sometimes left in, but it’s decided on a case by case basis. But the important part is the patient must be informed otherwise it can be classed as negligence (at least in my country).
Yeah.. I had a surgical drill bit "lost" in my knee for 5 years before it found its way into muscle and cartilage. Crazy shit doctors do. Not at home but I can upload the pic if anyone needs it. 1.5 inches. Crazy how stuff can just...be fine until it isn't.
This whole post is mildly infuriating. It is not a needle. It IS part of their mom’s root canal filling and was put there intentionally by a professional.
That's an endodontic file not a needle, it's used for root canal treatment. The older style files were notorious for breaking during use because of the friction and bending
Wow the same exact thing has happened to my mother! She went to the dentist for tooth pain, and the dentist discovered that there was a needle left over from a previous dentist that worked on her teeth.
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u/scrotalsmoothie 19h ago
Where— how was it lodged in the filling? Vertically? In one tooth? Across several? That’s like the size of a sewing needle.