Cheat Lake Family Dentistry

About two years ago, I had a tooth get broken while playing soccer with a group of friends in Morgantown (in honor of the World Cup).  A few weeks after the break, I made a visit to Morgantown Endodontics for a root canal. Contrary to so much of what I have heard from others about the procedure, I had an incredibly positive experience. After the experience, I was recommended to Cheat Lake Family Dentistry with Dr.Jill Bowers Glover and Dr. Allison M. Wilson for a crown.

I was thoroughly impressed with my experience at Cheat Lake Family Dentistry, and I have actually been in the chair together with three of their hygienists and both dentists over the last two years.  I love the fact that I have been able to do this because it means I can give a more informed review of the facility and the level of care across the facility.

To be brief, these folks are amazing. The field of dentistry is unfortunately plagued with horror stories, and even more unfortunately, many people believe these stories are the norm instead of the exception. The folks at CLFD are professional, courteous, and truly seek for their patients to have a quality and care-filled experience.

Having been in a variety of medical offices during my life, one thing I’ve come to expect is a wait of 10-20 minutes after arriving in an office. At CLFD, I’ve never had to wait. If my appointment is for 10AM, they are ready to seat me in the chair at 10AM. I’m thoroughly impressed with their punctuality.

Each of the staff also remember details about me. They remember my vocation, hobbies, interests, and even my wife’s name. The only disappointing side about this is that folks are so friendly (and I have a bias toward chatting), that I just want to talk the entire time, and that is not so easy while people are doing work in your mouth. Beyond this, they invite questions, and give extremely thorough descriptions of both my assessment, and also every intervention or procedure they are performing. I not only feel educated about my own teeth, but I have a better understanding of dentistry and advances in dental care as well.

And, just in case a patient might want to hang out and disengage from the work happening in their mouth, they have televisions that are easily visible from the chair, and they give patients the ability to pick whatever they would like to watch. (Since Jamie and I do not have a big cable package, I often use this opportunity to get my fill of ESPN). :)

Unfortunately because of poor dental hygiene and a lack of regular checkups I have had to receive a number of fillings. The staff do an incredible job of pain management, and I’ve never had a bad or painful experience while getting work done at their facility. In fact, I had anticipated having a sore mouth for a couple of days after each time they needed to work on fillings. I’ve never experienced soreness afterward, and that tells me that they perform their work in least intrusive manner possible.

From the receptionist to the dentists, it is extremely clear to me that everybody at CLFD loves their job, and loves caring for their patients well. Before every appointment, I receive a reminder/confirmation call to make sure I haven’t forgotten and that nothing in my schedule has changed.

If you live in the greater Morgantown, WV area, and you are looking for a dentist, I highly recommend you give the staff at Cheat Lake Family Dentistry a try.  I believe you will find them caring, professional, and highly competent in the care that they give.

Morgantown Endodontics and My Root Canal

Sunday night I had some ice cream and fresh strawberries for dessert with some friends and it triggered some pretty intense pain for me. So much so, that I was calling everyone I knew to see what I could do to alleviate the pain. I had about an hour’s worth of excruciating pain which slowly began to subside after I took some Ibuprofen. I had an appointment scheduled for today at 8AM, but if there was any way to move my appointment forward, I wanted to do it.

I called the folks at Morgantown Endodontics Monday just as they were opening, and told them about my predicament. They were amazing! They worked me in for a root canal just a few hours later. They took before and after x-ray’s of my teeth, and so I asked Dr. McBride, my endodontist if I could those images emailed so I could share them on my blog. He had them emailed to me just a couple hours after our surgery was finished.

To me, the whole process was utterly amazing. Any time I mentioned to others that I had scheduled a root canal, they cringed and said good luck. I am thoroughly happy with my experience. Dr. McBride and his assistant explained every step of his work, and I made sure to ask plenty of questions before a rubber dam was placed around the tooth in question. I just wanted to understand the process thoroughly. Until my surgery, I really had no idea what a root canal was or what it’s effect would be.

Why did I need a root canal? Earlier this summer I had a tooth that got cracked while playing soccer with some friends. One day later, the broken piece of tooth came out of my mouth. When I went to a dentist, they were trying to salvage the tooth and clean it up before putting a filling in, but decay had gotten too close to the pulp. The preparation process had caused a bit of nerve trauma in the tooth, and had increased its sensitivity to hot and cold exponentially in the days that passed sense the dental work.

Above is a photo from before the surgery, and below is a photo from after. The really bright spot in the image is the temporary filling put in to my tooth. You can see two dark spots going down the center of my tooth. Those are the nerve fibers. They make our teeth sensitive to hot and cold, and when a tooth has decay near to the pulp, this nerve fiber becomes VERY sensitive to hot and cold, and is why we experience toothaches.

I imagine that in the past root canals were very painful. Essentially, the endodontist drills a hole through the tooth into the pulp and continues to clean out any nerve fibers that may be in the long thin canals that run down the middle of the roots of tooth. Before the advent of anesthetics, and without some of the amazing technologies available today, the drilling and cleaning process would probably generate a lot of heat and since the whole process deals with nerve endings, it was probably VERY painful. Even in my situation, one of the canals crossed through the jawbone, and so Dr. McBride needed to apply anesthetic directly through the pulp of the tooth. (I only felt a momentary pinch).

After he cleared the canals thoroughly, he inserted a biocompatible rubber filler to replace the nerve fibers. You can see in the second image that the canals of my tooth’s roots are filled as well as the pulp chamber. You will also notice a dark spot in the middle of the tooth. Dr. McBride explained that this was placed in the tooth under a temporary filling to mark that the work had been done so when I go visit the dentist in mid-October, they can see the work that has been done.

If you ever need a root canal, I highly recommend Dr. McBride and the staff at Morgantown Endodontics. They are thoughtful, professional, friendly and they keep you informed every step of the way.