Craps. I just broke a chunk of tooth off.

The tooth does have a filling in it. It broke to one side of the filling and above the gum line, so there is still some tooth there.

Money is tight and I have problems with bottom fillings in that they can shoot me full of novacain until I'm numb to my eyebrows, but somehow the bottom teeth still feel much pain.

Still, this is bothering me only in that it feels "wrong" to my tongue. So maybe I've de-sensitized over the years.

Go and get it fixed. They will probably just take a mold and then plaster over it until a cap can be made for you. Then they will just glue it. No biggie.

We were eating steamed oysters and I bit down on a piece of shell with a tooth that had a large filling in it. They had to do a crown. It was more financially painful than anything else.

I've recently had that experience! The tooth, a molar, had been cracked, and one night, FLOSSING (o the irony) it broke off and flew across my bathroom. It was not painful.

The dentist, due to the type of tooth break, gave me two options. Crown it ($900) or fix it with a big ol' filling. I'm fixed-income girl, so I chose the filling. (much to his dentisty chagrin.) He told me it probably would last 5 years or so, if I was lucky. So far, so good...six month's in!

Hope this helps!

Good luck!

The cost will be more painful than the dentist's work! I've had several crowns put on and several root canals and none of them were bad at all. People always joke about how bad root canals are, but nowadays it's more tiresome than anything. You'll be fine.

It'll be ok....I hope. Will call my dentist first thing. Of course we're having a nor'easter tomorrow. Hopefully it will be ok until next week. Hopefully he'll be open tomorrow -- I think he's usually closed Thursday and Fridays...

Was chewing gum, broke out an enormous filling of a bottom molar.

The dentist said since it was a filling it was easier (although big) since it was cleaned up all nice from getting the original filling

Lots of shots, but no big deal. Does yours hurt? Mine hurt because it was fairly close to the nerve. I bought some Dentek 'putty' for temporarily replacing fillings until you can get to the dentist. It helped quite a bit.

It hurt a little bit when I was half-blindly digging around trying to remove what I thought was some popcorn stuck in my tooth. Then I looked closely and, uh-oh. Then I turned on the extra light by the mirror and got a better look and said "oh craps. When I thought I swallowed the kernal, I really swallowed my tooth!"

But as long as I don't scrape on it it doesn't really hurt. In fact, I just deliberately opened my mouth and sucked cold air over it, and it only hurt a little bit....

If the weather isn't too bad tomorrow, I'll lo looking for the Dentek stuff!

Thanks!

The dentist wanted to crown it then changed his mind after seeing the X-rays. I got the lovely white filling I wanted in the first place.

It's holding up well a couple of years later. I have plastic fillings that were supposed to last 8 years that have gone about 30. Your mileage may vary.

Good luck!

it's all about the hygiene. The better job we do brushing, flossing, etc., the longer the fillings last. He put most of my current ones in back in the early 80s.

Hopefully this one will just get a glues on cap or something like that. Different dentist. Different state. Different time.

On a fig newton? That made me laugh for some reason!

I know it's scary....I broke off a good chunk on a back molar and had to wait TWO years before it could get fixed...thank goodness it was just an edge and not anything that hurt! BUT it felt HUGEEEEE!!! that's the weird thing about your mouth being so sensitive, is that the size of any issues seems like they are way worse than they are.... they are really small repairs when you see it in reality. I used to be a dental assistant when I was 18-21, and it was always amazing to me how teeny the holes really ARE...


FWIW - I had a weird dream about breaking a tooth and parts crumbling the other night, I guess it's pretty common...has top do with Speaking your truth to POWER

bit down on a walnut shell while eating a brownie (no, not that kind, lol!), and broke a molar. i went to the dentist that day and he bonded that sucker up good as can be!

you'll be ok....

The break was not too bad, and the dentist filled it.

Another hairline cracked tooth (molar) required a root canal. After the root canal, the tooth eventually broke and had to be pulled. I would never have a root canal again!

Root canals have germs in them. Anaerobic nasty germs. I also go to a mercury-free dentist. I got all my Hg fillings pulled and replaced with cerex.

I still don't understand why dentists use mercury and lie and call it a "silver filling". The EPA says mercury is the most toxic non-radioactive element. so hey, it's better than plutonium!!! (Not sarcasm).


http://biologicdentists.com/custom2.htm

"Research has indicated that 100% of all root canals result in residual infection due to the imperfect seal that allows bacteria to penetrate. The toxins given off by these bacteria are more toxic than mercury. These toxins can cause systemic diseases of the heart, kidney, uterus and nervous and endocrine systems." --Dr. Edward Arana, D.D.S.

when i did that the receptionist wouldn't let me in for a month (wouldn't give me an emergency appointment) and the tooth ended up cracking beneath the gum line so it couldn't be saved and i had to have it pulled.

the dentist asked me why it took me so long to get in to see him. i told him his receptionist wouldn't let me in sooner. he was pissed off--said the tooth probably would have been fine if i'd gotten in sooner.

so get it looked at tomorrow.

I think his business really shrank in the recession. This is a pretty poor area. But I will be leaving a message on his answering machine today and hopefully will get a 1st appointment for early next week.

In the meantime, it's been easy to keep it very clean, doesn't hurt at all, I'm chewing on the other side of my mouth and avoiding eating anything hard.

I think I'll be ok, although the worst thing is I'm close to getting a part time job Mon-Wed so I have a limited amount of time to get it fixed in.

I'm hoping since he has a home office, once I actually reach him he'll be able to work on me during a non-office hour. Since it's just downstairs, I would think he could...

you will probably find the cost of the crown more painful than the broken tooth. Though, depending on the break, there's an outside chance it could be "patched".

That said, it is important to get in ASAP so that the tooth gets repaired/crowned before you wind up needing a root canal as well (something else I have found to be more painful financially that physically).

As a Baby Boomer, "state of the art" fillings when I was a kid were large, amalgam things that expand and contract. As a result, my molars started cracking in my early 40s and all of them are crowned now. My dentist is not one to do a root canal before crowning a tooth (unless there is signs of infection) though I have wound up having root canals in a few of them - but years after the crowns were put on.

Friday afternoon. Called my dentist and got in on Monday a.m. Fretted ALL weekend, as I have no insurance..(seniors dental is EXTREMELY high) but he gives seniors rates...(and I was going to him during the days when I had dental insurance through Ford Motor Co.)

I was SHOCKED. He PATCHED it...it was an old filling on the side of a tooth from the old days, and HOW he patched it I do NOT know...and then I told him I was at a family reunion with a group of my brother's friends and everyone had such nice teeth. Dr. said, 'they all have dentures", and I said, "I know", but I wish you could whiten my teeth - he had told me previously my teeth are too soft so he cannot whiten them, but he did a little bonding touch up for me on the front upper teeth..and I WAS THRILLED.

Probably no one can notice the difference..BUT I NOTICE THE DIFFERENCE..and I was charged $120.00.
Again I was thrilled!!!!

So hang in there Magical...

The original white plastic fillings (back in the 60s) would shrink and leak, and caused worse problems down the road. (My mother had our neighbor/dentist use the white plastic on 4 of my molars so my teeth wouldn't have any silver in them. They leaked and cavities tunneled through all my teeth except the fronts. I had to have major dental work 10 years later, and then again in the early mid-80s, when I was lucky to not need any root canals).

Everything has held up since my 80s upgrade until the popcorn last week.

The new materials are dramatically improved don't shrink the way the early stuff did, so less likely to leak. All he needed to do was make a new little "tooth wall" where it broke off.

and I'm guessing that you are experiencing a deep suffering. I'm just reaching out to you to give you my long distance hug and hope that you can feel my caring. If it were me, since I'm so deeply in debt anyway, I'd just break out a card and have that tooth fixed! They can bond on a new part just like that...or you may need a crown
Love yourself and take care of yourself. xoxox

versus the protected, "porn-addict" co-worker where I'm at on the other hand. It dawned on me that his porn-addiction was one thing when he could keep it hidden away in the blood banking room and the other hospital. They could easily chalk it up to co-workers turning on each other through the downsizing. It's a different thing when it's so brazen. Had the impatient Dr. X come storming in looking for that test result, he would have gotten an eyeful. They need to consider things from that perspective as well...not good for the Lab's relationship with the Hospital. They need a thorough housecleaning and overhaul there, including managerial.

I've just finished balancing the checkbook and determined that, including my teeny paycheck tomorrow, I can pay the dentist this afternoon for 1st visit, my property taxes this week and to have my direct vent heater fixed on Friday, and still have a positive balance in the checking account to put my snow tires on next week.

I have a little cash stash tucked away that will buy me food for several weeks on top of my frozen, canned and dried stash. I have 3+ months supply of dog and bird food, food for Dahli through March or so. Catfood and my fresh stuff if all I need to restock. So I can put additional dentistry on plastic and pay it off over a couple months if need be.

Forgot to say thank you and right back at ya!!!!

The devil you know and all of that. Have you thought of chatting with the department of labor? It is always anonymous and they are all over harassment and would jump on the porn thing. But, it's hard to thread the halls of management and coworkers and future. But, I have to say, you're in great shape for the winter. Fortunately for us, we only have 2 cats we're responsible for, but again this year, I'm not ready for winter. Wood and propane, some food, but not much. Luckily we have a year round farmer's market!

It's quite the world, isn't it?

Just came home from the dentist. Tooth all fixed.

Crown not needed this time around. He said 20 years ago this would have been capped.

Nowadays: bonded! He did say if long term the bond fails, it will need crown.

Aside from a couple teeny ouchies while packing it down, no real pain at all!

Minimal financial damage: the cost of a filling sans shots, drilling, etc. $95

glad everything turned out ok! dental problems can be very stressful.

grabbed my elbow to get my attention and subsequently pushed the bottle into my teeth which chipped one tooth so bad, I had to go to an ER dentist cuz it hurt like hell.

:/