I have a sharp pain in one of my my back molar teeth every time I bite down on something harder than pasta. So I only chew things on one side of my mouth now and it doesn't hurt.
I saw the dentist (I'm lucky enough to have an NHS one) and she took an x-ray. She is a newly graduated dentist but showed it to a more senior dentist and neither of them could see anything but both thought that I might have a fracture in my tooth. So she suggested replacing the filling in that tooth and if it doesn't solve the problem she will extract the tooth.
The thing us, I have a fear of dentists and this means I could have to go through procedures twice instead of once. So am I better off:
- Paying for a second opinion from a private dentist who might be able to figure out what's wrong before any treatment. I could afford this if I had to.
- Going ahead and asking for an extraction as it's only one back tooth.
- Being brave and getting the filling redone then extraction
- Or should the dentist suggest repairing a fractured tooth rather than jumping straight to extraction and therefore I need to seek a second opinion anyway to try to save the tooth?
Thanks for any advice. I'm 50 and the rest of my teeth are in decent enough shape if it matters. And I do know I'm very lucky to have options as a lot of people are just having to live with dental pain at the moment. I'm just scared! When I was younger I used to be so frightened of dentists I needed sedation just to get a cleaning. I'm better than I was by far but still.....