Chipped filling or big cavity? How can I tell?

[green_the_fish]

A couple nights ago, my tooth started to hurt. I've always had some issues with cavities. Tooth decay seems to run in my family. I have tried take better care of my teeth lately, though. I brush with an electric toothbrush and special toothpaste. I've cut down on soda out to the point where I only drink it a few times a week.

The thing is, I HATE flossing. My gums seem to bleed really easily, and it always grosses me out. Every time I try to floss and I end up spitting blood all over the sink, I'm all like... eww! Then I procrastinate and don't end up doing it. Dumb, right? :bonk:

I know, I know, I need to get over it and start flossing!

Anyway, I figured it was just another cavity. I was poking around in there with a toothpick earlier, and I decided to ask my mom about it. When I showed my mom, she said that it looked more like a chipped filling to her. I have been told by a dentist that I do grind my teeth pretty hard at night, so it's possible that I might have chipped it off.

Well, let me try to describe what it looks like. There is a very visible hole in one of my teeth. If I open my mouth and point it out, you can see it pretty quickly. I can fit the tip of a toothpick in there easily. It is black inside. The tooth that it is in used to have a black filling, but the dentists made it white last year. I don't know if they scooped all of the black out and replaced it all with white, or left some black in and put white on top. What do they usually do?

Does it sound like a big cavity, or a chipped filling? Why is it black inside? :confused:

[ICLori]

Fish, I'm very sure it's a big cavity. You must go to the dentist ASAP if you want to keep that tooth. You are risking exposing the nerve and losing the tooth, or an infection, and losing the tooth. And of course lots of pain. I have had this happen to me, and it was a big huge cavity. I did end up losing that tooth. :(

The only thing that REALLY helped me with preventing tooth decay was using Listerine faithfully twice a day. An oral surgeon suggested this to me (no dentist ever did, darn it) and it has cut down on my cavity level HUGELY.

You see, brushing is great, flossing is great, but those things do not kill all the bacteria in your mouth that are responsible for causing cavities. Listerine does. Listerine brings the colony count down far enough so they can't do as much damage (the bacteria.) It's not really the crud sitting on your teeth that cause decay, it's more the bacteria that feast upon the microscopic film that is still left on your teeth after you brush, that cause decay.

Anyway, if you don't have any reasons not to use Listerine, give it a try and see if it doesn't help your decay problem. If you hate Listerine a whole lot, holding salt water (lots of salt) in your mouth for a minute (then spitting it out) will help kill the bacteria too.

Blessings,
Lori

[Sarojini]

As for replacement of amalgam fillings (the grey/black ones) with the white composite ones, they scrape out all of the old black stuff and replace it with the white composite, so you shouldn't have any amalgam left in there. It's like having your teeth re-filled -- I had mine replaced several years ago.

It may be a chipped filling or it could be a new cavity that has begun to develop on the edge of the new white filling. That happens sometimes if the white filling either doesn't sit right in the first place or loosens up a little later. In either case, space develops between your tooth and the edge of the filling and it's a magnet for bacteria and such. I had it happen to me. They just took out the entire filling again and refilled it, including the new cavity.

It's black because it's a hole in your tooth and it's dark in there :) Plus, the tooth decay bacteria have a way of darkening the hole they're making; it's probably bacterial waste product (I know.... eeeeewwwwwww!!!).

I'd have it checked. If you let those go for too long a lot of times you end up needing a root canal -- my dentist told me that when I finally went in to have mine fixed, he did his best to fix it with just filling composite but almost had to do an emergency root canal. Yuck!

[waterflow]

I can't use an electric toothbrush. Hurts my teeth. My teeth will bleed sometimes when I floss but I guess the more you floss the less it will happen. Do you use the kind with wax on it? It goes much easier. It could be part cavity and part filling gone. I'm really not one for dentist advice. I have a huge fear of it. Only have gone maybe 8 times in my life and I am now 42 years old. The listerine thing is good for helping like Lori said. I have tried the kind that doesn't burn. I think Crest makes it. Not sure if it works the same though.
Well, this is all that I can say here. I'm starting to panic and sweating over this but I wanted to give you some support on it. :kissing: Good luck with it. :grouphug:

[pingpong]

If you start flossing regularly, your gums will stop bleeding and will feel much healthier. My teeth are really close together, and I've found that Reach "Gentle Gum Care" floss is the best - it's soft like yarn. Just saw it back and forth between your teeth to get the floss all the way to the gum line.

[green_the_fish]

Thanks for the advice and support, guys. I'll check about the floss with wax. Lori, I decided to start the Listerine thing today. It never really tasted that bad to me, so I'm fine with the stuff I found in the cabinet. I'll let you guys know the hole story (hehe) after I get to a dentist.

[green_the_fish]

Last night, as I was grinding my teeth, I dreamt that I pulled out my teeth with some pliars. In the dream, I had decided that I didn't really want them anyway. I remembered what my boyfriend said in a past conversation about how he wouldn't find me attractive if my teeth looked like my tounge was in jail, so I decided to leave the front ones in. I took out the upper molars and lower molars, and the lower bicuspids. My smile still looked pretty normal, so I was happy. Then, my mom came home with one of her boyfriend's friends. They looked very shocked to find me with blood dripping from my mouth, collecting my teeth in a glass jar. My mom demanded an explanation, so I lied and said that I had been having a manic episode, and didn't realize what I had done until it was too late. She said that she was going to take me to the dentist right away to get dental implants, but I said I was 18, and refused. I was really happy about it, until I woke up, and realized that nothing had changed!

So, yeah. When I woke up, I decided to stay home from school that day and make an appointment with the dentist as soon as I could.

I went to the dentist at noon. The lady that was cleaning my teeth said that, besides that patch in the lower-right hand side of my mouth, it actually looked like I had been taking care of my teeth fairly well. That's a new one. I asked how I could have developed such a large cavity in less than a year, and she said that it is quite unusual; one possibility is that it is the result of a filling getting chipped. The last dentist I went to did a sloppy job on my fillings, to the point where I had to go back more than once to get them fixed, so I definetely see that as a possibility. Although, I don't floss enough, so I did pretty much bring it on myself.

She also said that she can tell just by looking my teeth that I grind them in my sleep. Unfortunetely, my insurance doesn't cover the 400 dollar cost of getting a mouth guard professionally done, so there's not much I can do about it. A temporary solution would be to get a relatively cheap one from a big store like Walmart, but that's a short-term solution, and isn't recommended for long-term use. Well, anyway, I couldn't really picture myself wearing one to sleep.

I had x-rays done, and the dentist said that the patch on the lower right hand side of my mouth looks bad. The cavity is huge; it goes all the way down to the nerve. Also, there is a tiny cavity on the other side of the tooth, and in the tooth next to it, right across from the hole. He said that I needed to have a root canal soon, or they wouldn't be able to save the tooth.

This already happened to me last year. I had a cavity and it hurt for a while. But then it got swollen, and the nerve died, so it didn't hurt anymore. I got concerned about the swelling, and decided to have a root canal done. So, I asked him to suppose that, hypothetically, I just didn't care what happened to the tooth, and decided not to get it done. He said that I would lose it, or eventually, have to get it pulled. Then he told me that I should do whatever I can to save the tooth, and gave me a refferal.

I guess it's a bad sign that I've developed an apathy towards health, doctors, and dentists in general. One procedure leads to another. I've been getting cavities yearly for... pretty much my whole life. It feels like a never-ending cycle of cavities, fillings, root canals, caps, crowns, more fillings, etc. I don't even like my smile. I try not to smile with my teeth in pictures, because when I do, I always end up photoshopping them to take away the yellowish tint. And, you know what, it's not that I eat candy and drink soda like a pig and never brush my teeth. I have been trying, but you know, it really does seem to run in the family. The only way my father could stop his dental problems was to cut the majority of sugar and soda from his diet, floss and use special mouthwash about twice a day, and brush after meals with his own combo of special toothpaste and baking soda. I just don't care enough to do all that. Maybe I'm just not meant to keep my teeth for my whole life, you know?I've tried taking better care of them, but they just keep getting messed up. Am I going to have to change my whole lifestyle here? Do I care enough to do it?

I guess, if the tooth hurts a lot, I think I'm going to get the root canal, just to get the pain to stop. If the nerve dies as quickly as the other one, I'm not really sure I'll have the internal motivation to go through the whole root canal procedure again. Losing the tooth just doesn't seem that horrible right now.

[mary124]

Bad teeth does run in the family. My dad had his all pulled in his late 30's. My mom has pretty good teeth. My brother and sister, even through they ate all sorts of junk hardly ever brushed their teeth when we were growing up, they hardly had cavities. I on the other hand, brushed twice aday, hardly ate sweets, etc. My teeth were so bad, (still are). I have a thing about going to the dentist, but I go at least once a year-really should go more due to a heart condition, but I'm deathly afraid of them!! (I'm 47 years old and had a really bad experience with one when I was younger- hoping I'm not scaring you here) But please, go to the dentist and take care of your teeth, they are the only ones you have!! I wish I had, I still have mine, but they are in bad shape.

[miz_sunshine87]

green_the_fish,

I feel like I'm in the same situation as you. I had a root canal done last year, and the dentist said that he needed to fill so much in that it will probably crack and I will need to get an implant eventually. Great! So he tells me this AFTER I get the bloody root canal done. Money grabbers! To make matters worse I had an exam the day I got the canal done and the idiot dental surgeon thought I would feel fine to take it. "Just a bit of discomfort" he says. Yea right! It's a miracle I didn't burst out trying while writing the exam.

That was about a year ago and I haven't been to the dentist since. Now I see a small cavity in a front tooth, and a bigger one one my last molar (that was alread filled a yr ad a half ago or so). I'm so afarid that I'm going to need another root canal, that I am avoidingthe dentist now. I know its a stupid way of thinking, but I hate that guy. He always makes me feel guilty for not flossing every single day. I brush regularily and floss sometimes, but I don't have time to floss every day! I don't see how flossing would help my back molars anyway, the cavities form right on the last tooth so there is nothing to floss between.

I think all of my stupid tooth problems were caused my wearing braces for so long. It caused nasty calcifications. So now I have fairly straight teeth, they are just falling apart.

I just wish I could go on extreme makeover and get some impants and veneers done. It would be worth the pain if they looked that good in the end. The only thing is, I'm not American, and I don't want new boobs or liposuction lol!