Straight Teeth in Less Time
3 Steps To Take After Breaking A Filling
Lois Murray
Is it the middle of the night and you've broken a filling? Are you trying to figure out what to do but your dentist's office doesn't open for at least a few hours? For some people, a broken filling isn't immediately noticed unless they manage to spit out the whole filling. For others, the experience is immediately painful. Regardless of which case you fall into, the treatment for both is pretty much the same. Some of the steps that you need to take include:
Replace the filling: A broken filling sometimes comes out almost completely intact, it's simply no longer attached to the tooth. If this is is what happened with your filling, carefully place it back onto the tooth if at all possible. Do not eat or drink anything now because the filling will simply fall out again. This is obviously only a temporary measure, but it will help prevent air from reaching the nerve inside of your tooth. An exposed nerve can cause an excessive amount of pain. Even if you aren't currently experiencing pain, replace the filling as a pain preventative. Either way, being able to put the filling back on your tooth will give you a little extra time while you take other measures.
Buy dental wax: In the dental care section of many pharmacies, you can find a small container of something called dental wax or temporary filling. Buy a package and follow the instructions to apply it to the affected tooth. Although still temporary, this is slightly more permanent than having your broken filling simply resting atop your tooth. You still shouldn't eat anything, but you should at least be able to drink a little water, if necessary. When you're buying the temporary filling or wax, there may be a pain relief liquid made up of clove oil next to or near it. Do not buy this! Although it may sound like a good idea, especially if you're in pain, clove oil applied to a broken filling could make the pain even worse.
Contact an emergency dentist: If it's the weekend or if you simply can't wait until your regular dentist opens in the morning, going to an emergency dentist is going to be the best way to get relief for your broken filling. Not all emergency dentists will accept all dental insurance, however, so try to get confirmation of whether they'll accept your insurance before you go there. This information may be found on their website or you may have to get a friend or a relative to call if your mouth is too painful for you to talk properly.
Check out a website like http://www.treasuredsmilesdentistry.com for more information and assistance.
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I had braces when I was a kid. Back then, you had to wear those metal wires and rubber bands for what seemed like forever. When I saw that my child’s teeth were going to be crooked like mine, I was dreading the years of braces and orthodontist appointments and limited diets that I saw stretching ahead of us. I was pleased to find out that braces today are very different from braces when I was a kid. They don’t need to be worn for nearly as long, and they aren’t as intrusive, either. My daughter got braces that can barely be seen, and she can remove them when she eats, so she doesn’t have to give up her favorite foods. I was so impressed that I started a blog to talk about modern day tooth straightening techniques. Braces have come a long way.