Another dental question

[Mog]

My second tooth from the back, on the top, is heavily filled with an old metal filling (probably 20 years old). It has recently become sensitive to cold and sugar when I bite down on it. I'm not due to go to the dentist until June but wondered if anyone knew if this might indicate decay or that the filling now needs replaced.

I'm now 17 weeks pregnant so I'm slightly concerned about having an old metal filling removed. Also if I needed root canal treatment on it I presume they would not be able to do this while I was pregnant as I can't have x-rays. It's not causing me huge problems at the moment but just wondering if I should get it sorted out sooner rather than later.

I'd be grateful for any advice anyone can give.

I had x rays when pregnant with DD - they put a big thing over my belly and as it was just my face (broke my nose AGAIN!!) they said it was fine!!

I would say it probably does need replacing mog but you would have to ask your dentist for advice on that. as for the ex rays, my dentist said that you can have them as long as you tell them you're pregnant (and then said that i should have informed him i was pregnant before he did any work on me at all...i was 8 months at the time, didnt he notice!). im not sure how they go about them but it is possible.

I had terrible trouble with a filling when I was 12 weeks pregnant. It caused so much pain in the end I had 2 xrays, a course of antibitoics, an extraction, root canal treatment and a crown done. IIRC the xrays at dentists are low anyway and my dentist pointed out flying to Europe you would encounter just as much radition. In my case the pain from the 2 teeth were so bad I really couldn't have waited another 6 months for any dental work.

Can anyone tell me the chances of needing a root canal treatment when an old filling is taken out?

Don't think there's any formula for judging odds of having a root canal, as it's all on an individual basis. Over the past 18 months, I have had quite a few old fillings replaced. My dentist said they were never intended to last a lifetime, so needed to be replaced once they got to be 20-25 years old. Unfortunately, I did require root canals on 3 of the teeth, and then crowns were put on top. Not pleasant and horrendously expensive, but IMO, far preferable to losing the teeth completely, which would have happened eventually left untreated.

I also had x-rays when pregnant, and was covered by a lead apron first (done for all x-rays I think). I was told that they "zapped" the x-ray at a lower intensity due to the pregnancy.

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