Has anyone ever broken a tooth?

As far as I know, they are at least as strong as a third party crown.

Gah, everytime I read about other people's teeth problems I thank my lucky stars that I work in a dental office.

Tooth vibes to everyone!!

I feel kinda lucky, I have never broken a tooth or anything before...then again now that I have just mentioned it it may happen now!

I've never actually broken a tooth, but my front tooth got chipped when a kid threw a swing at my face on the elementary school playground when I was a kid. I got to go home early and eat ice cream. My tooth was fixed later by an oral surgeon when I had to get some other stuff done.

My mom has cracked teeth several times before, and had to get them fixed at the dentist.

I broke off part of a molar on a peice of starbust candy when I was 20yrs old, and freaked out. It seemed really urgent to get it fixed (I'm terrified of teeth probs and the dentist) so I made an appoitment with Western Dental because it was the weekend and my dentist was closed. They were barbaric and did work I didn't need and it took about 3 hours If it's not hurting you it probably isn't too bad hopefully. It shouldn't take more than maybe 45 minutes for a quick fix. I hope you are ok and it's just topical

This thread caused me to have dreams about my teeth breaking!

Originally Posted by Going Nova

This thread caused me to have dreams about my teeth breaking!

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Aww I had one of those a few weeks ago - I can't remember the details but remember it was about my teeth breaking and that I was scratching my head a bit over that one in the morning.

Supposedly that sort of dream can also forewarn about health or job related problems, or that something you've said or done will come back to haunt you.


After a weekend and today of that nerve getting very irritated/inflamed (see my last post in this thread) I'm going to try calling around in the morning and hopefully find a decent dentist in town that doesn't have a 3 month waiting list...

Well my tooth is fixed! The dentist just drilled a little bit to smooth some parts out and added filling. So not a big fix. I was done and out in 30 minutes with plenty of time to make it to my other doctor appointment.

I broke one of my forward teeth on a soda cap (don't ask heh). I had no pain, but it was a little bothersome having this big chunk of tooth fall out of my mouth.

Had to get that tooth grinded down and a root canal with crown.

Funny you should mention this!

I'm in the same situation at the moment. On my bottom left, the molar next to my wisdom tooth broke on the outside last night, so I have a sharp edge irritating my cheek. Like you I don't seem to have any pain right now, and the dentists office is closed today for some reason and won't be opening until Monday at 8:30am!

I looked in the mirror and I can't see a cavity, but that doesn't mean anything. A pin sized hole is all that is needed to cause extreme pain.

The tooth had been hurting me for a couple of days when I bit down on it. Last night I was eating some popcorn and felt what I thought was a popcorn skin stuck between my tooth. That's how I noticed it was a broken tooth.

I don't know what to do. The answering service gave me his home number to call, but I don't want to drag him in on a day off for this considering it's not giving me any pain. But at the same time I don't want to suddenly find myself in horrid pain tonight or anytime over the weekend either. And I'm sure by Monday my cheek is going to be raw from where the sharp edge is rubbing.

Natalie, go to the drugstore and look in their dental section for 'orthodontic wax' or dental wax, and put some of that on the broken part to smooth it out.

Mooch, I'm glad your tooth fix turned out OK!

What is going on here? My back molar got real sore this week and the gum got raw - turns out that it cracked and now I need a root canal and crown too. My dentist gave me a prescription for antibiotics and referred me to an endodontist for the root canal - but he can't see me until June 9th. I hope I can hold out that long...my whole jaw hurts now. Ugh.


No one else here break a tooth, OK?

Originally Posted by tuxedokitties

My dentist gave me a prescription for antibiotics and referred me to an endodontist for the root canal - but he can't see me until June 9th. I hope I can hold out that long...my whole jaw hurts now. Ugh.

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Hm, 18 days isn't that long. How many days of antibiotics do you have? 10? 14?
You could try calling around to find another who will get you in a bit sooner or see if you can get put on a list to be called if anyone else cancels.

To help with the pain try taking acetaminophen and an NSAID. If you're on a really strong antibiotic you may want to pick up some yogurt or a probiotic.

I went in Tuesday and the dentist was pressing down very hard around the affected area and I ended up with a swollen face the next day! I couldn't close my lips and I kept sneezing. Luckily most of that is gone now and I just have an inflamed knot about an inch above my gum.

Originally Posted by tuxedokitties

Natalie, go to the drugstore and look in their dental section for 'orthodontic wax' or dental wax, and put some of that on the broken part to smooth it out.

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Hmmm. Never heard of it. I'll call Shopper's and see if they sell something like that and if they do I'll go and get some. Thanks

Well, I made it through the weekend without any pain. I didn't go and get that wax. The tooth didn't really bother my cheek once I got used to the sensation.

I have had a hard time chewing though. I didn't want to chew on the left because of the broken tooth. And I can't chew on the right because the very back molar on my upper right is entirely filling on the outside of the gum and needs a crown which I can't afford right now, so my dentist said to not chew on that side in order to preserve the filling.

So I've been chewing with the teeth more towards the front of my mouth. The gums there are not used to such abuse and are irritated.

I am scheduled for a cleaning at 11:15 this morning, and their office did some juggling around of patients in order to get me in at 10:30 for a filling so that I can still keep my cleaning appointment.

They were going to try and get me in yesterday if I was in pain, but I told them that I wasn't having any pain so today would be ok.

I told them that it had been hurting when I bit down for a few days, and they said it must have been cracked.

I love going to the dentist. But today's visit has me a bit worried. I really don't want to hear "crown" mentioned because I can't afford the one I need, let alone 2... on different sides of my mouth!

Well, good news and bad.

The tooth that I broke was a clean break without a cavity. However the tooth itself had 2 small fillings in it. So he drilled out the 2 fillings and fixed the tooth.

The bad news is that I mentioned to him that I had a tooth on the other side at the bottom that feels the same way as the tooth he just fixed, before it broke.

He did an xray and said the tooth looks like it's cracked and I have to go back on Monday to get it fixed.

I can understand one cracked tooth, but 2?!

But aside from broken and cracked teeth, I have no cavities!

Yikes! Well I guess it's good they found the other crack before it broke off on you. (And good that he didn't say the "C" word!) And always to no cavities!

Originally Posted by MoochNNoodles

Yikes! Well I guess it's good they found the other crack before it broke off on you. (And good that he didn't say the "C" word!) And always

to no cavities!

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Yeah, it's been years since I had an actual cavity. All of my fillings for the past several years have been to maintain the existing ones. I used to have silver fillings but they were all replaced with white ones because apparently it's the trend, plus the mercury isn't good for you. But the white fillings on molars especially, aren't as durable as the silver mercury ones. I had a silver filling in one of my back molars for several years without ever having a problem with it. Since it's been changed to a white one I've had to have the filling fixed 3 times.

Apparently this starts to happen about 30 or so years into your fillings. The old metal fillings, the dentist told me, come apart from the tooth in places and everything starts to move around. Then your teeth can break or lose pieces when you're eating your normal food. This I found out after losing about 1/3 of one of my teeth. So apparently all these old fillings need to be replaced to avoid more eventual breakages.

I'm in my 40s, fwiw.

Originally Posted by Natalie_ca

Yeah, it's been years since I had an actual cavity. All of my fillings for the past several years have been to maintain the existing ones. I used to have silver fillings but they were all replaced with white ones because apparently it's the trend, plus the mercury isn't good for you. But the white fillings on molars especially, aren't as durable as the silver mercury ones. I had a silver filling in one of my back molars for several years without ever having a problem with it. Since it's been changed to a white one I've had to have the filling fixed 3 times.

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Hmm, not sure if it's just the stuff our office uses or maybe all white filling material is like this, but it should actually be stronger than the mercury (or "amalgam") fillings. Amalgam fillings simply plug the hole. The white filling material, at least the stuff we use, actually bonds to your enamel. It also expands and contracts (due to hot & cold food) at the same rate as your natural tooth material, whereas amalgam does not; that's why amalgam can cause your teeth to crack if it expands too much or it can contract too much and leak around the sides or fall out completely.

And just to clarify another misconception- no, mercury is not a good thing. No good dentist should be putting amalgam into your mouth. Insurance companies may balk at the additional cost of the white fillings, but they're going to balk at everything HOWEVER, having your mercury fillings drilled out before they're degraded to the point where they need to come out, just doing it to get rid of the mercury in your mouth, can do more harm than good- when you drill it out, you're atomizing all that mercury and releasing it into your system. Sort of like how they tell you to never vacuum up the mercury from a broken thermometer- it just turns into little particulates and you swallow it. So, really, hold off on doing that as much as you can. We get people all the time who have been driven into a frenzy by the media about the dangers of mercury and want us to drill out all their fillings.

We had some lady last week or the week before call us in a panic because The Today Show ran some story about Crest Pro-Health mouth wash causing discoloration and mouth irritation....yep, we know- that's why you only keep it in your mouth for 30 seconds. I heard about someone who kept Listerine in their mouth for 5 minutes because they thought "the longer the better" and then wondered why their mouth tissue started sloughing off

I'm glad you posted that clarification. My dentist has only ever given me one of the white fillings. It was in what he told me was the beginning of a cavity in the center of the top of a tooth, that he wanted to catch before it did get bigger. All the other fillings I've had are silver and between the teeth.

Actually I just had my cleaning today and found I have a small cavity on each of the top rear molars to be fixed. Maybe I should ask when I go in why I only get the silver. I like my dentist and I've been seeing him for years now.

Some offices are what's called "insurance driven"- they are in network with insurance carriers; most of their patient base comes from the insurance members; to an extent, they may let insurance preferences dictate treatment.

For a dentist to be "in network" they have to agree to charge less for procedures so that the insurance company doesn't have to pay as much. In return, they get a patient base from this. The catch for the patient is that since the dentist is charging less money for procedures, they have to make up their costs elsewhere- they use amalgam instead of white resin on fillings in back teeth, they charge extra for nitrous, they hire lesser-trained staff, they charge extra for other technologies they use (using a laser on cavities, using a Velscope to detect oral cancer, a Diagnodent to diagnose cavities, the CEREC crown system I mentioned before, etc.) They also shorten the appointment lengths so they can pack more people into a day.

Our office believes that this compromises the care we give and we choose to not be in network with any insurance companies. This doesn't work for all people, but in reality, what the insurance company will pay for an in-network dentist vs. an out of network dentist is relatively small, especially considering what we are able to offer people at no additional cost.

I don't necessarily think every in network dentist is bad- I think they've got to look at their potential patient base- if their office is in an area where most people rely on dental insurance as their only option to get the care they need, then insurance-driven is better than nothing.

But anyway, if you're willing to pay a little more for your fillings to have them done in white, I don't see why your dentist would object. Good luck!

It's funny- now that I work at a dentist's office (I've been there just over a year now), I notice other people's teeth so much more than I did before. I was watching Oprah a few months ago and she opened her mouth really wide when she was laughing, and I could see that she had amalgam fillings in all of her molars! I was so shocked! They could be really old, but you'd think if anyone would risk the chance of mercury exposure because of how visible she is AND could definitely afford to have all her fillings re-done, it would be Oprah!!