Dental woes.

perplexed.com

I have a tooth extraction due in two weeks time. Sadly when I was younger I had a terrible dentist who over-drilled and filled and left me with most of my molars just lumps of amalgam with a veneer of tooth. I think I've been quite good with my dental care as my front teeth top and bottom are in good nick but over the last 6-7 years ( I'm 49 now ) my poor old molars are crumbling apart and I've had lots of problems and a few extractions.

Sadly this new one means I'll have only three bottom teeth on one side and I am worried about how this will affect my other teeth and my ability to chew and also I understand a missing tooth leads to bone loss in the jaw. An implant would be best, I think, but is very definately not money saving and I'd never risk going abroad or anything. Does anyone know if there is any alternative to an implant that would also solve the bone loss problem?

The tooth in question is the one at the back so I assume a bridge isn't feasible?
Has anyone had anything similar?

Bronnie

Same here..........I'm 52 and went to a "drill and fill" dentist as a child, despite my parents being very particular about teeth cleaning. My front teeth are fine but at the back I have 4 extractions and aload of heavily filled teeth. I have just embarked on a modest programme of improvements, one at a time every 6 months or so......just had a couple crowned, one was done NHS IRO £250, the other was private IRO £500............what a difference.........feel much more confident about my broad smile side-on now!

A heavily filled back tooth has just broken slightly and will no longer support the amalgam filling. I'm not able to afford a crown atm and didn't want an NHS metal crown, so the dentist has rebuilt the tooth in composite for £90. Actually I am delightred to have another 'white' tooth at the back of my mouth, hopefully it will last a reasonable time.

I am about to have an implant to fill a space where a large tooth was extracted a couple of months ago. I posted on here for advice. The implant should cost IRO £2,000. However my dentist (trusted) is being mentored and will be doing my implant, under the supervision of the specialist at half that price. Since it is a single tooth and not at the front, I am happy to go with that.

My opinion is that atm at my age, cosmetic appearance is still important to me, so worth investing in at this age, albeit on 'tooth by tooth', slow but steady improvement basis.

PS I'm sure you know to avoid the chocolate caramels in the Christmas choc boxes!!

BitterAndTwisted

Bronnie wrote: »

A heavily filled back tooth has just broken slightly and will no longer support the amalgam filling. I'm not able to afford a crown atm and didn't want an NHS metal crown, so the dentist has rebuilt the tooth in composite for £90. Actually I am delightred to have another 'white' tooth at the back of my mouth, hopefully it will last a reasonable time.

PS I'm sure you know to avoid the chocolate caramels in the Christmas choc boxes!!

Yep, I had the same experience: half of a molar broke away and the dentist repaired it in the same way: he warned me that it wouldn't last very long, maybe two or three years if I was lucky and it just broke away again recently three years later. Now, I'm unwaged at the moment so cannot afford to see my nice private dentist and it's the first thing on the list to get sorted as soon as I can.

Please don't mention chocolate caramels! A girl at work gave me a very chewy one once and it pulled an amalgam filling in a molar completely away. Now crowned and cost £300. I'm getting the odd twinge in it and am getting rather worried about that too.

perplexed.com

Thanks for the replies folks. It looks like the implant is the one to go for, so I'd better start saving up! Bronnie, it's galling isn't it that we thought we were doing the best thing visiting these dentists. I think if my mother hadn't been so enthusiastic I'd have better teeth these days.

BitterAndTwisted: Don't worry I haven't dared to try and eat a chocolate caramel for some time now. I did once take one thinking it was a soft centre - never again!