re: Is there such thing as an emergency dentist?

Your tooth has different levels of “health” as we will call it

Normal- self explanatory

Reversible pulpitis-minor to moderate pain but will go away after a relatively short prior of time. Usually seen after a procedure is performed

Irreversible pulpitis- tooth is on the verge of “dying” and has now become very painful. Spontaneous pain and can wake you up at night from hurting. This condition will not get better and a tooth will have to have a root canal.

Necrotic- tooth is no longer vital. This is when an infection can occur

Cracked teeth can be difficult to diagnose/treat. Often times a crown is all that’s needed. Other times depending on the crack/severity, a root canal and crown needs to be done. There is a special tool that can be used to help diagnose a crack that you put on various parts of the tooth and have a patient bite down and it can help isolate/diagnose a cracked area. If the tooth already had a filling, then a crack, now a new crown, that tooth has been worked on several times and the nerve may now be dying causing your pain. Imagine having repetitive surgeries on the same finger/knee/arm. I wouldn’t say your dentist did anything wrong but you likely need a root canal now. Hindsight is always 20/20 and it’s easy to say a root canal should have been done before. Having not done the exam or seen x-rays I can’t say what I would have done. I have seen teeth do a lot weird things over the years. Hope some of this information helped.