Q about ground down teeth

Charlies_Mummy

Thanks to having a tooth grinding habit for several years (I don't do it anymore) and crunching my way through copious amounts of boiled sweets during previous pregnancies, my teeth are in a real state :-(

My lovely NHS dentist has done some composite veneers on 3 of my top front teeth that were getting very sensitive. However my lower teeth are very ground down and small, and I'm conscious of it, even though no one else ever notices it, and I'd like to have them built up with composite to make them taller.

I was just wondering is this possible? My dentist can't do it as it's for cosmetic reasons not health, which is fair enough, but I've phoned a few private dentists and they all say they only offer porcelain veneers, which TBH are out of my price range, and I don't fancy having all the prep work done for them.

Does anyone know if private dentists do build teeth up using composite? And would it work to lengthen ground down lower teeth? My NHS dentist said it should be perfectly possible to do but he just can't do it on the NHS (they don't do any private work at the practice at all). How do I go about finding a dentist that offers that service?

Many thanks

welshdent

I find it odd they dont do ANY private work at all .... and yes its feasible to build up lowers in composite however if it is bad as you say it it I would see someone who has an interest/speciality in occlusal problems as you can not re organise someones bite lightly. It takes careful planning IMO which is probably the reason your own dentist does not want to take it on

Toothsmith

It can be very difficult, as there is little surface area to stick things to, and a lot of force to break them off.

Plus, if your front teeth have worn down, that will be because the back ones are worn too. If you build up the front ones, then they will be the only one's that are touching, and not only will this be very uncomfortable, but it means whatever you build these up with will break very quickly.

Often the only way to sort something like this out is to do it as a 'whole mouth' rebuild. This is very complex, and, of course, extremely expensive.

I haven't seen your mouth, so I've no idea if any of this applies to you - but 'building up front teeth' is often nowhere near as simple as it sounds. You need to have quite an in-depth discussion with your dentist about all the implications.

jenniewb

OMG- I feel so thick! I eat quite alot of sugar-free boiled sweets- crunching them rather then sucking and my teeth are SO worn down too- my dentist was adament I was grinding my teeth at night but I just don't think I am, am now thinking its got to be the sugar free sweets which I had previously never even considered. Thanks for posting this, you may have just found me an eurika moment! (And given me the motivation to stop eating so many of them.)