I've had the same wonderful dentist Terrence Lukens for 30 years.  During the time I was in his care, I never had a toothache.  He took excellent care and was the kindest, most caring compassionate dentist I've ever met.  Suddenly I found myself with no insurance.  I called to find out the cost of fillings, etc, worse case scenarios...and decided my best bet was to travel to Porterville.  I had couple teeth filled.  One evening I ate some Almonds from Costco.  They were like biting rocks.  A few days later I started having pain.  The pain continued for several days then woke me in the middle of the night with excruciating pain radiating into my jaw.  This was my first toothache in my life.  The following morning I went back to the dentist in Porterville thinking it must be the fillings.  Well, she couldn't find anything wrong other than the filling may be a "little" high.  Otherwise, there was no problem on the xrays or on the oral exam. The dentist filed the filling that she thought may be a tad high abut told me she really didn't think it should cause me pain.  She said I was hurting because I had pulled ligaments due to the high filling.  She said it may take 5-7 days and it will be better.  She told me if this didn't work, she could pull my wisdom tooth, it may be putting pressure on this tooth.  It didn't get better.  About a week later I called the dentist, and she sent out some antibiotics.  The pain seemed to decrease somewhat.  It started to slowly bother me again, I couldn't eat on the right side of my mouth and no matter what I tried to eat I had pain.  About a month after I stopped the antibiotics, the pain was starting to feel unbearable again.  I began to wonder if perhaps I was becoming a toothache hypochondriac since they could find nothing  wrong.  One night as I ran my tongue over the tooth, I thought I felt a ridge down the middle of my tooth.  I wondered if it was cracked.  I made another call to the dentist again and she called out another round of antibiotics.  The pain remained the same during the 8 day round of antibiotics. It didn't ease at all.   I didn't want to go back to Porterville.  I didn't like the idea of pulling a perfectly good tooth.  I hated to go back to Dr. Lukens because I had the strangest feeling of guilt.  It was like I had cheated on my dentist.  I would liken the feeling to that of a married person cheating on their spouse of 30 years then getting caught.  Cause you know I am going to have to fess up.  So I called Dr. Lukens office.  It took a couple of days.  I explained my predicament to him.  Once again the xrays looked perfect.   He said. "there is something, but there is no fracture that I can see, let me take a look."  I told him the other dentist thought perhaps I should pull the wisdom tooth.  I told him it hurt really bad each time I brushed with my sonicare.  I also told him I thought maybe it was cracked.  When he first looked he said everything looks fine.  He started with his metal instruments and right away I was saying yes yes thats the one.  Then he turned the small end around and twisted it on the tooth.  The tooth moved.  He said it's a complete fracture from front to back.  He told me it couldn't be saved.  Then he showed me the xray.  He said, "it looks perfect, but look here between the roots of the tooth up inside the gums, do you see these fragments?  They are part of your filling that have traveled up inside the fractured tooth into the root area.  The tooth would have never abscessed because the fracture released pressure constantly."  He told me he had only seen this twice.  The first time, the man couldn't remember eating anything hard, or having pain while eating.  He told me he was sorry it couldn't be saved, I could go to an oral surgeon if I wanted too.  I asked him if he could pull it.  He said yes, I said I would rather you pull it than anyone.  Thank you doctor Lukens for taking such good care of me and my family for so many years.  My straying days are over!