Filling falling out of tooth - what can I expect?

...got an appointment with dentist NEXT Thursday as one tooth felt a bit strange, and now realised the damn filling is falling out [:0]

Not having had this before, and being unable to get through to my dentist to ask...is this likely to start causing me pain (I am such a wuss!) before it gets seen to next week? If so, I'll go to an emergency dentist and get it sorted...

Had that happen to me, no dramas, just chew on the other side of your mouth until the dentist can get a round tuit...

Hi Tigger

abit hard to answer.. i have had fillings come out and no prob.. but then i have had them come out ( 3 ) and ended up having root canels..not nice...
hope its the former and the reason the filling fell out is not because of an underlying infection...

good luck and, i agree, dont eat on it .. try to save whatever filling is left

firstly i cant believe that you have never had a filling fall out before!!
pain? if it dosent hurt now it probably wont start until the dentist fires up his drill then you can expect double pain that of the drilling and injection and the pain of getting the bill! my last visit to the dentist cost me $750.00 so when a crown fell off recently i glued it back on with superglue it tastes like shit initially but it worked, two months on its still in place!

mikethebike;359498 wrote: when a crown fell off recently i glued it back on with superglue it tastes like shit initially but it worked, two months on its still in place!

Geeze Mike, were you trying to kill yourself? Are you aware that superglue is isocyanate?
Isocyanates are powerful irritants to the mucous membranes of the eyes and gastrointestinal and respiratory tracts. Direct skin contact can also cause marked inflammation. Isocyanates can also sensitize workers, making them subject to severe asthma attacks if they are exposed again. Death from severe asthma in some sensitized subjects has been reported. It's inert once it's cured, but pretty dangerous stuff to put in your mouth!

Mike, yes, the first one that has fallen out - and one of the original (mercury? silver) fillings done all those years ago by the dental nurses at the Murder House [!] so at least 30 years old!

And before anyone gets upset with me calling it the Murder House, that is what we called it then - and I am not saying they are like that now...but the dental nurses we had (always young and straight out of training, or still in training, it seemed) were pretty free and easy with the fillings and starting work before injections had kicked in, very impatient with the kids and very intolerant of any expressions of pain!

They also used to enjoy discussing gruesome cases that they had come across in their dental training with, it seemed, no regard for the fact that their junior patients could actually hear all the gore and pain they were describing.

They gave me a lifelong fear of dentistry .

what can I expect?

you can expect a sad bank account

actually stikki not wishing to be a smart ass, but its actually Butyl cyanoacrylate and has been used for some considerable time medically for closing wounds and also for repairing ulcers at times, not withstanding that of course its not designed for swallowing indeed that could be fatal so i did exercise extreme care not to get it on my tongue or anywhere other than my crown, its something that i always keep in my first aid kit albeit the medical version rather than the hardware store version which whilst its the same basic chemical is not clean. I discovered it when i worked briefly in an accident and emergency unit as a student and had the chance to glue a few kids heads that came in, (i was supervised by a doctor!) it has proved useful a number of times for closing clean straight cuts on both me and several animals in my care in the past. Not withstanding all of that i acknowledge that its a pretty stupid thing to put in your mouth! In my defense i never said i wasn't stupid!

mike, the vision of you glueing kids heads with supeglue suddenly brought to mind that Gary Larsen carton of the male nurse in the newborn nursery who is rubbing the babies on his front and sticking them to the ceiling with static electricity...

Aaaah yes, the murder house. Remember it well butcertainly not fondly. I also have a lifelong fear of dentists and have had some real dramas in the last 2 years. Had to go to an endodontist! Ouchies in more ways than one. Put it off for around 8 months then HAD to go. Got some little White pills from my GP and made my OH drive me in. EXPENSIVE. I have more to do as well:( I hate teeth.

blimeyvicki;359540 wrote: I hate teeth.

I don't hate teeth, I hate the fact that we live longer than our teeth were meant to last. I go all out to keep what remain of my teeth given that without huge expenditure 40 years ago due to bad dentistry, I would have none at all. As it is they have lasted 25 years longer than the "fix-it" dentist gave them even though many are now capped or root canaled. I wish that dentist was still alive so I could tell him what a fantastic job he had done. Now they are getting brittle and snapping in half. No pain, they just break off at gum level and end up in my dinner.

Tigger, if your not feeling pain or discomfort now, you are unlikely to before your visit so leave the appointment in place. At a calculated guess I would imagine it will be a simple task of replacing the filling - but will still hurt the cheque book.

While on the subject, I cannot stress enough the importance of looking after your teeth and eyes, particularly as you get older. I know it's an expensive business and few people budget for either but they should.

Cheers,
Ronnie

Tigger, in my early school years the dental nurse didn't give injections. We just had to be tough. Of course we weren't tough. Later on we were given the choice of have an injection or just go for it. Not sure which was worse, being used as a pin cushion by a semi-trained dental nurse or just going without. I tried it both ways and both sucked.

eeekk tigger.. that takes me back.. at primary school our dental nurse had 1 leg shorter than the other.. if she wasnt wearing her built up shoe, she would be happily drilling away, shift weight and end up drilling holes in our gums or tongue!
i am still paying for the massive OTT fillings that had been done when i was a kid.. hence the root canels and crowns.. ggrr

Mum remembers the foot-treadle drills from her childhood in England...and it took her an age before she would ever go back to the dentist as an adult...

Had to have a tooth extraction a while back and opted for my usual method of IV sedation - but for the first time ever (a) the dentist (a new one for me as my old one retired) used gum injections as well, never had that before even when wisdom teeth being taken out, and (b) the sedation didn't work properly - although I didn't feel pain, I do remember a large chunk of the procedure including someone holding my head while the dental equivalent of pliers grabbed the offending tooth. Usually you don't remember any of it at all...

It's put me off dentists somewhat - up 'til now I knew at least I could be sedated and wouldn't remember the procedure and that made it okay to know stuff might need to be done in future, but now that comfort blanket has been ripped away

As the others say - if it doesn't hurt now it won't hurt in the near future. It also means that the hole isn't deep. The dentist will drill the hole a little bit bigger and fill it again. I had this happen a wee while ago and my dentist charged me 145 Dollars.