dental x-ray while pregnant

[vivie]

I'm expecting my baby any day now (due on Thursday!), but have been suffering with toothache for the last couple of weeks. Apparently I have a fracture in an old fashioned mercury filling which is causing the problem. My dentist is reluctant to mess around with the filling or x-ray me because there may be some risk to the baby so she has coated the tooth with something to protect it and at the moment the pain is bearable as long as I don't eat anything to hot, cold or sweet (but all I want to eat is calorie-loaded sweeties - I'm knackered!).
Anyway, obviously the best thing to do is to wait until the baby is born, then get the tooth fixed, but I got the feeling that the risk was pretty small, and that if the pain got much worse again my dentist would do the treatment while I am still pregnant. Does anyone have any thoughts?

i think if your baby is due any day, it would probably be best to leave the dental x-ray until after it is born. X-rays aren't really good for anyone unless they are really necessary, so I wouldn't have one whilst pregnant unless it was unavoidable. I feel really sorry for you though - toothache must be the last thing you need in the late stages of pregnancy! >

I am pretty neurotic about stuff like this but I had to have a mercury filling removed on ds's due date (the receptionist chose to sit there with the hospital's number just in case I went into labour!). I didn't have the x-ray. However, as I was told that it is only the same amount of radiation as a trip to Spain, it was only the fact that I'd done quite a lot of flying in the pregnancy which stopped me. The tooth was filled with some stuff that tastes like cloves.

I hummed and haad but was eventually advised by actual mothers that I WOULD NOT have time to go to the dentist for ages after ds was born. I also did not want to have to spend the first 6 weeks or so of ds's life in pain from my teeth. And you will need to drink coffee and probably eat sweeties to get through the first few sleepless weeks.

Also, if the filling is cracked or similar, it may be touching the gum itself or leaking (I don't know techical terms-this is how it was explained to me).

I later had it replaced with a white filling, so you can see I am quite anal about this kind of thing. I just didn't want the same thing to happen next time out.

I hope you make a decision you feel comfortable with. I do think that this happens a lot, because basically some people find their teeth go crap in pregnancy. This time round, I haven't been to see my GP as yet but I have already made an appointment with my dentist for a nice scale and polish .

Thanks everyone. MM - my dentist said that the risk of x-ray was the same as a plane trip t0 Spain - her exact words. I wonder if this is what it says in the 'Teeth Textbook'!

my dentist said that about the plane too..after he had given me a telling off for not telling him i was pregnant. well i was only 8 months after all. for crying out loud! i was as slim as could be everywhere else with a huge belly! (although sadly thats not the case now...the weight is distributed quite evenly)!