Lessons learned about dental fillings

I'm going to start where I had my teeth scanned using a panoramic xray in PGH for wisdom tooth extraction. Cost amounted to two hundred pesos, and I only had to wait about thirty minutes for the hard copy result. Looking at the result in front of the light. It showed deep cavities behind my right second molar tooth. This is the time when i realized how important flossing is. I went home after to go to the clinic in another time. Before I could go ahead with the dental filling, I had my wisdom tooth to be extracted first. As it was causing on and off pain for many months. By the way, the total cost for my wisdom tooth extraction was three thousand pesos. Not including the cost of one week antibiotics. The three thousand pricing depends upon the angle of the tooth. Compared to other clinics around my town, it was the one cheapest I could find. I went back to my original dentist to proceed with the extraction. While I was sitting in the dentist chair, my mind was really overthinking if he would be able to pull the tooth without complications. I felt really dizzy after the successful extraction. So for a minute, he let me rest before going home. This where I understood why patients don't want to visit the dentist. Many weeks has passed after the extraction. I had the opportunity to go back to the dentist for the dental filling. While the wound from the extracted wisdom has already healed. Morning has come, I woke up early expecting I would be the first in line, but by the time I arrived the line was already long. Depending upon the complexity of the surgery of other patients, the average waiting time would be around two hours. Not to mention the dentist is experienced and fast. While waiting, I talked to other patients beside me to speed up the time. My turn came up after a few hours has passed. I sat on the chair, opened my mouth, and the procedure started. Whenever the dentist steps away, I try to close my mouth a little so I could rest. It's a relatively fast and short procedure. After the procedure, he recommended to avoid chewing on the side of the mouth where the dental fillling is located, and toothbrushing the treated tooth. He also added the filling will harden later. The type of dental filling he used was color white. After a year has passed, it so happen that I ate a popcorn carelessly on the side of the mouth where the dental filling is located. When I took a look in the mirror, the filling was lost. I think I swallowed it. This time I do not have the budget to replace it, and it was not covered by the one year warranty. I decided to let it pass for months where it started to hurt. Once again, I came back to see the dentist for consultation. Upon consulation, he recommended extraction of the tooth. I had to take a one week course of antibiotics for the pain before undergoing the actual procedure. A week passed, I came back to see the dentist. While the surgery is ongoing, he was pulling the tooth to test if I will feel pain. As there was pain he did not proceed with the extraction. Although I was not really sure if it was pain. Another set of stronger antibiotics was prescribed. He also suggested to see the Panoramic xray of my teeth. This is the moment where I realized I should have showed it to him before buying the stornger antibiotics. Which was quite expensive. After I finished another set of antibiotics, I came back to the dentist with my xray result. When he saw the result, he mentioned he cannot do  extraction as the risk is too high. This a huge problem as root canal is pricy and the affected tooth will not last. I decided to look for advice to an another dentist. A dentist in a private clinic mentioned that he will do the extraction for two thousand pesos. Then another dentist in a goverment facility recommended dental filling. After going around town, I went back to my original dentist to tell try the dental filling. He applied a temporary filling to the tooth to test if it will react for 1 week. Three hundred pesos was charged for the temporary filling. After one week, I was relieved there was no pain in the tooth. I came back to the dentist to proceed with the dental filling. What a relief it was, because I would have to pay more for complex tooth extraction if there was pain. Gladly there wasn't any. In the clinic,  he recommended a mercurial type of filling costing at five hundred pesos. Which.is cheaper compared to the white filling costing at eight hundred pesos. I think he used that type of filling because of its durability. As my mother's mercurial filling's lasted for decades. On the process of the procedure, he asked to bite if it's okay. I told him it's okay, but this was a mistake as I was sure I felt something. Nevertheless I let it be.  Months has passed before a part of the tooth broke off causing the filling to become dislodged. This is not covered by the warranty so I had to pay again. I think the reason why it broke off because the tooth was weakened because of improper placement of the filling. You should not feel anything while your chewing foods. I was skeptical if a filling would work, nevertheless he applied it once again. Months has passed before the filling became dislodged again. Eating a sticky bread would have caused it. By that time, itnwas covered by warranty so I was glad I did not have to pay for anything. From now on I avoided chewing anything on the affected side of the mouth. Also, I avoided eating popcorn and sticky breads.