Will the NHS repair a cracked tooth or just pull it?!

[toothcrackedow]

I have just discovered a cracked filling, called 111 and been told to call back in the morning in the hopes of getting me an emergency appointment.

The cracked tooth/filling is cracked at the very bottom of the tooth (as in where it makes contact with other teeth) and doesn’t seem to be crumbling. I have no idea how this happened 😭

Will they just pull it out? I’ve had one pulled before and really don’t want to go through that again. Please don’t berate me for having bad teeth - I know. It’s awful. But my local dentist keeps putting their prices up and I need to find a new one but they feel so unaffordable 😭

They won't usually pull a healthy tooth, I'm guessing can a filling not fix this? Or a crown?, crowns are expensive. Have you got an NHS dentist?
I hope nobody will berate you for bad teeth. I live in Cumbria & have to travel into the next country. Yes country my dentist is in Scotland as there are none near me, others travel to Newcastle. It's common to go 30+ miles for a dentist.
I once had a friend & she said their whole family booked their Hexham trip & treated it as a family outing 😂

The NHS only pull them. Sorry. They wont do anything ekse. Ive been there.

Lots of my teeth cracked when I was pregnant, apparently it’s normal… but it felt awful at the time. I had one pulled, and two had crowns fitted. During my second pregnancy, they started cracking again. One was able to have the crown replaced but the other had to be pulled. At first I was really self conscious about it but now I don’t think about it. It was my back teeth that were the problem so I don’t see it, nor does anyone else.

No NHS dentist for miles.

To be honest, I’m really tempted to do one of those Poland trips they talk about on Reddit all the time. For the same price as a UK dental consultation you can do like 5 days in Poland and get everything sorted.

If its not painful then why waste money on an ooh appt today? Book with nearest available nhs dentist tomorrow, the one 3 towns away, and find out what your options are.
You do sound like you've made up your mind already and are determined fir this to be a massive problem. It might not be.
I wouldnt give you grief about having bad teeth but I will about having 2 years to re-register with an nhs dentist (the one 3 towns away) and failing to do so til there's a problem. That becomes more difficult for the nhs to address than it would have been if you'd been having your 6 month check ups and spotting issues early

The one three towns away isn’t guaranteed to be taking people on.

I’ve had this before - I cracked a tooth, left it (admittedly a lot longer) and had to have it pulled. I’ve been ignoring the need to go to a dentist for a while because of the cost but this has made me realise I need to just do it. I’d rather just get it sorted today.

Also @Hohofortherobbersfor my previous dentist wasn’t NHS. There’s no guarantee of an NHS spot. I’ll ask today to join their waitlist for an NHS spot.

As someone with a filling that came out cracking a tooth ... I had 5 infections in 15 months inthst tooth. High dose antibiotics didn't touch it. Honestly I'd get it pulled now and save the pain and trying to get treatment etc etc.

OP, it will depend on the severity of damage. I have a tooth that has died and also has a crack - half of it just broke off one day when I was eating a sandwich. I had a dental abscess on the tooth, which was sorted out with antibiotics, and my (private) dentist said that she could try a half-crown, but that if the crack was too bad, it would have to come out and I’d need an implant. So far, the crown is holding, (touchwood) so for the time being, it’s fine. Your dentist should be able to advise you further.

Why did you call 111 for a cracked tooth? Are you in severe pain?

Because I knew it needed an emergency appointment.

One of my teeth collapsed last year. The old silver filling in it was huge and I thought the tooth was a goner. NHS dentist refilled it beautifully with a new white filling. My tooth hasn't looked so good in 45 years. Cost about £75 on the NHS I think.

The new tooth looks so good I'm sort of hoping a couple of my other silver filled teeth collapse a bit.

It depends on the condition of the tooth, the position and extent of the crack and the dentist themselves. There's also no guarantee that a crown will be a long term fix. If the damage is borderline for a crown repair, the crown could fail in the medium term and you could end up with an extraction in 18 months or so. That's not to say it will definitely fail but it is a risk for borderline cases.

I'm sorry OP, I know the distress you're feeling.

It is not really an emergency though, it could wait a day or two until regular dentists opened on Monday. Most practices would have a couple of same day appointments set aside.

Emergency out of hours appointments at weekends are usually heavily triaged. Genuine emergency appointments are for bleeding, swelling and trauma.
I think you need to wait until Monday

I've had exactly the same thing recently - felt like half my tooth had gone ans really weird but no pain. Dentist checked it and he said it's a chipped filling. I can either leave or have re-filled. I'm going to get it refilled as it's more protection for the tooth in the long run - I resorted to private treatment after I got chucked off the NHS after Covid when they all went private due to the contract issues - best thing I've ever done and a filling is only £50 (north east).

You absolutely cannot know that. You can tell us about your own experience with your own tooth but you have not professionally assessed and examined the OP.

Well I’ve got an emergency appointment today. So you can think on x

While I agree that NHS dentistry is in a shocking state, I wouldn’t be so condemning of private dentists, who do try to keep costs down as much as possible in a profession that by its nature is expensive. Mine does, and I have the reassurance of being seen quickly when needed. I’m not well off, but it’s money well spent (Practice Plan - so much better than Denplan).

Im sitting here recovering from an extraction. I moved off NHS to a private consultation to save it but was told that because it had cracked under the gumline it was better to extract. Then I was sent back to the NHS for the extraction. All dentists were very honest with me and consulted in a way that weighed up cost versus outcome. I do understand the feeling of losing a tooth. I feel bad about it too (a bit embarrased) but think its more common than you realised...something like 65% of people get an extraction.

You seem to be really anti dentists, can you imagine how painful life would be without them?

I don't like going to the dentist because I am a coward, but am glad to go when in pain.

I thought the same. My private dentist charges £120 for a filling.

ETA I have 30 teeth - both my upper wisdom teeth have been extracted. According to my dentist I’m a unicorn, barely anyone my age (early 70s) has lost so few teeth.

I’m terrified of them.

I also think private businesses capitalising on the lack of NHS dentistry by pushing their prices up and up, because they know that in the end you have to go and see them, is morally repugnant. My old dentists practice has four dentists, all of whom drive around our deprived area in big fancy cars and they always seemed to be chatting about being off on another luxury holiday. I think that’s wrong.

I go to an NHS dentist. I have two cracked teeth, one has now been a half tooth for years, the other was just pulled as it was too far gone.
Nobody can say without seeing it. Not even a dentist.

I don't have any experience of dentists chatting about luxury holidays, but the costs of training and setting up a dental practice must be huge.

I seem to remember when I lived in UK that you had to have regular check ups to stay with the NHS dentist, not sure if
that is still true? Here in NZ all dentists are private and they definitely know how to charge!