Should I listen to my dentist?

[Downtroddenhousingass]

Apparently I have a hole in a tooth. He said it must be hurting, when it isn't at all.

He wants to drill it and fill it.

All very slap dash with an NHS appointment.

I'm tempted to not take his advice and go and see a private mercury free dentist for a second opinion. He couldn't tell me if it could be filled with metal or plastic. Both aren't great for you so would rather avoid.

If I can't feel any pain could it heal itself?

Yes gold is technically an option. Google a dental inlay or onlay (depends on how much tooth needs to be filled which would suit).

It's basically a "filling" fabricated in a lab made from porcelain or gold. So the cavity would be prepped/drilled in the same way as a regular filling and then an impression taken of your teeth. The impression gets sent to the lab and your tooth is filled with a temporary material until it is ready and then the inlay or onlay is cemented into the cavity.

No idea about prices in the UK but they aren't outrageous money. Should last longer than a composite filling too because it won't shrink over time.

Thanks so much, inlay or onlay seems like a much better choice.

It says £500 a tooth but lasts 20-30 years. A white filling is 180 but lasts 5-7 years.

Why aren't they more common if they last longer and are more economical?

You could go for Cerec- porcelain inlay made there and then. The cement is composite based though whereas with gold you can use a really old school cement- either glass ionomer based like Fuji or properly old like poly F.

Inlay/ inlay preps have to have no undercuts though so can be a bit destructive depending on the cavity.

I didnt think of a ceramic inlay, that might be a good option. You could either go for a ceramic inlay, ceramic can be more destructive, or a gold one i suppose if you were happy with gold. It depends on the size and shape of the cavity, its worth going to the private dentist and seeing what they say if you really don't want composite or amalgam.

I will tell you this I had a tooth that had a small hole, over time it caused no pain but became bigger, said tooth then cracked as it was so bad and the whole obviously couldn't close and sugar etc was destroying it, the pain this tooth caused was worth than childbirth I would rather push a head out of my vagina 7 times in a row every day for a month than experience that again, I then had the tooth removed as it couldn't be saved I then got dry socket. That pain was worse than the first stated pain I spent all night and all day crying for two weeks. Get it filled ASAP

This x100 although I didn’t have dry socket. I ignored my dentist who told me I had a tiny hole in my tooth. Eventually I had pain like I’ve never felt before and it took a root canal, a crown and £1000 to sort it out. Seriously, don’t mess about. This was a private dentist.

No my dentist is not NHS as I am not in the UK. But I totally agree it is worth paying to havs someone who will explain the different options to you and/or the reasoning for not explaining. As the posters here who are dentists have kindly explained about the type of filling not being able to be decided until the decay is gone.

Ask the dentist about the risks as well. As I understand it the BPA in fillings is not a problem because BPA only leeches when heated, you're unlikely to be putting anything of the temperature to cause BPA leeching in your mouth as it would burn you.

A white filling is 180 but lasts 5-7 years

Mine have lasted a lot longer than that! The last one was put in 32 years ago and all 4 of them are still fine (or were last November when I last saw the dentist).

OP, no natural stuff will 'heal' your teeth. I have about 3 teeth without fillings. Had amalgam before and changed them all in my early twenties to the white ones. Now I'm 41, one of them had to be replaced last year but the rest have been fine.

I think it's still possible to get gold fillings? I know someone has loads.

My white fillings, I think only one has failed even partly so far (I have a billion fillings).

Bear in mind if you go for proper gold it will cost a lot.
Our Cerec crowns are £590 but I would charge £650 for gold due to the extra lab charge for the actual gold. An inlay would be a bit less.

I have the opposite problem with my NHS dentist - two of my teeth at the back have dark patches in - I'm freaking out about decay, he insists (after scratting/pressure on them and an x ray) that it's 'just discolouration'. I don't get any pain from either.

Any lovely dentists on the thread - is this plausible? Or should I get another opinion?

gold filling are expensive and the price of gold is expensive the alloy is 60% real gold and gold trades at about £1013 per ounce so that is approx £40 per gram an inlay could easily be 5-6g of real gold so that is £200+ before it is even made and of course being made to a one off mould that won't be used again means it will cost approx 3X the cost of the gold, cost will be size dependent,

if you have large metal fillings they can cause dark shadows basically it's the metal showing through a thin wall of enamel also heavy that have dead nerves can go grey or black even after the decay has been removed and a tooth has been root filled even trauma can make a tooth go dark

sorry about bad grammar
I meant any tooth that has a dead nerve where heavy came from I don't know

Hmm none of that applies teacup - and it’s hard to see how a wisdom tooth can have had accidental trauma. Might seek a 2nd option but equally I don’t want to necessarily weaken the tooth!

My dentist goes the other way, vaguely mentioned for a while ‘watching’. Tooth broke off and needed removing, rotten and crumbled up