x-rays and dental treatment in pregnancy

[Mog]

I know there have been threads on this before but I phoned the dentist office today to make an appointment about a filled tooth at the upper back that has become sensitive to cold and sweet things. The dental receptionist, on hearing I'm 18 weeks pregnant, said there is very little the dentist will be able to do due to pregnancy and not being able to have an x-ray.

Obviously I didn't take her word for it and made an appointment. But it was my understanding that the level of radiation from a dental x-ray was minute. Can anyone clarify this as if I need something like root canal, I'm reluctant to go ahead without x-rays.

[bunny2]

When I was pg with ds I had an abcess on my tooth and it hurt like hell. One dentist refused to do anything so I saw another one. He gave me antibiotics to clear up the infection and then he put in a temporary filling. This stopped any further infection/pain and lasted until ds was born when I then had a root canal. If you have a root canal you will need lots of xrays so it cant be done when you are pg.

[grumpyzebra]

The radiation level is quite low (actually, I had a dental Xray when I was about 3weeks pregnant and didn't know it, myself) but they still like to play it cautiously and may not do anything, as she implied. There is the option of lead apron to wear over your bump, but your dentist may not like to go that route. It's also possible it's just a sensitive tooth and dentist will be able to tell that that treat it accordingly.

[californiagirl]

My dentist said she could do X-rays, but she'd really rather not if she didn't have to (and a root canal would be too many). She decided my hypersensitive tooth was pregnancy gingivitis, and it did get better with cleaning. But she said if it didn't, I should come back and she'd do one X-ray just to get a look at that tooth, and it wouldn't be any problem. She certainly felt I should be there and wouldn't have advised not bothering!

[prettycandles]

I had a rootcanal when I was pg, without any x-rays. It was the right thing to do at the time. The dentist said that because I was pg she ought to send me to the Dental Hospital, but wouldn't unless I insisted, because she felt my pain ought to be addressed as soon as possible. It was very bad. The only drawback to having it done without xrays was that she couldn't fill the top of the tooth properly, or crown it, so she had to do a temporary filling which gave no support or strength to the remains of the crown. As a result the tooth shattered (painlessly!) when ds was 6w old, and didn't leave enough to support an artificial crown. I now have an unsightly gap, and as soon as we decide that the family is complete I shall have an implant (if we can afford it!).

[Jimjams]

I didn't want to be x-rayed in pregnancy but my cowboy dentist at the time said that an x ray of the upper jaw was fine, not the lower. Mind you ds1 is autistic so not sure I trust him! (Also stupid man fiddled with the mercury in my mouth which is probably more relevant!). I think it's one of those things that depends- there will be a minute risk, but if you are in agony and it can't wait then you may as well get it done, if it's something that can wait then leave it until afterwards.

Depends how much you trust your dentist. The dentisit I had then really was a bit dodgy I think, the one I have now I would trust whatever he said iykwim as I know he is a very good dentist.

[Mog]

Thanks for all the advice. I've been to the dentist today and he could see a slight gap in my filling which he has temporarily filled with, I think, hydrogen flouride to plug the gap. So I didn't have to get into the whole x-ray debate.

He will have to drill out part of the filling but he wanted to wait until after the birth for this.