My tooth fell off

Or rather, a chunk of one of my teeth fell off today.

It's not painful, but it's uncomfortable. And it's a back molar, but it's gross.

I've managed to get in to see a dentist at 9am tomorrow, praise the Lord, because I'm terrified of getting food in it, having it crack further, cutting my tongue on it, cutting the inside of my mouth on it, or anything else, really.

Not. Happy. Jan.

I know that it's something that can happen to people as they age - and particularly people with lactose intolerance (and therefore a reduced calcium intake) and especially ESPECIALLY people who have had babies and breastfed ...

But dude, seriously! Not cool.

Exact same thing happened to me recently! All of a sudden half my wisdom tooth was gone! It's lucky you were able to get in tomorrow, hope it isn't too uncomfortable overnight.

That is one of my worst fears. Hope it's able to be fixed tomorrow.

Who do you barrack for? Perhaps it's related to that?

Honestly....the best way to preserve the health of your teeth is to have 6 monthly dental checks and cleans and X-rays every two years, if you don't drink milk then get some calcium tablets. Teeth generally break like that due to decay, not lack of calcium

Yep, I need to get some calcium pills, i think. Or just get into the habit of drinking milk! I was lactose intolerant until pregnancy, so I'm just not in the habit!

The dentist was pretty upfront, and very very informative.

He asked me about my tooth grinding before he'd even looked at my teeth! Apparently he could tell simply from looking at my face, and my jaw muscles :o

Having no knowledge of any tooth grinding, I waited until he looked at my teeth, and he confirmed that yes, I apparently have a really bad tooth grinding issue, and should get some advice about different guards to wear overnight pretty soon, before my teeth are ground down to dust ...

He also said that the kind of hole I had was caused not just by the grinding, but also probably sugar, and not enough flossing.

I'm a pretty good flosser, but he said I should be doing it at LEAST once a day, and that also made me realise that my brekky is probably a real problem - because I usually have usually have oats with sultanas and a little honey, or raisin toast, and I have it with coffee (black, no sugar) and berocca (no sugar in them either) but I have brekky at work, and don't brush my teeth until before bed ... so I should really get some toothpaste and a toothbrush to live at work.

And yeah, stop grinding! No idea what to do about that.

It ended up being about $400 for two fillings (the neighbouring tooth had copped some damage too, so I got that done at the same time, rather than needing to come back in 6 months for it), 4 anaesthetics (which made the rest of the day tricky!!) and got to work about 3 hours later than usual.

But I'm just so incredibly glad that I was able to get seen to so quickly, and now it's all sorted out ahead of my work trip. :)

All my prayers answered :) :pray:

Ok, I'm gonna wade into this discussion with a :hug: for PN and also some advice, because I'm the Queen of Bits of Teeth Falling Off or even Breaking Right Through to the Root.

Yes, you are absolutely correct about pregnancy & teeth. Some calcium might not go astray BUT make sure your Vit D and your magnesium are topped up or you might as well peg pieces of chalk at your face for all the good it will do.

BETTER way to get calcium where it's needed (ie on the surface of your teeth, where it can prevent decay) is by using a product called Recaldent - tooth mousse. You can get it with or without the fluoride in, I prefer without. Also, you can have a toothpaste that's a bit more serious about the calcium than regular colgate. Ask your dentist about these.

In a similar vein, you can get Recaldent chewies, which are ace and help during the day if you're not towing a toothbrush around with you. BTW if your enamel is week, brushing too often can do more damage.

Finally, the grinding. Jaw muscles/face shape, yes. If you're unaware of this you're probably doing it in your sleep. My endodontist picked it before I even opened my mouth, subsequently (spectacularly) confirmed during a sleep study. I've had a mouth guard moulded that I wear to bed every night. Expensive but worth every penny.

Final tip - if your teeth are brittle, lay off the highly crunchy foods for a bit. Learn to suck your corn chips. And definitely never, ever, ever crunch ice.

Thanks, lovely MD.

When pg I had calcium pills which had magnesium in them. My vit D has always been fine (weird, as I get minimal sunshine - another thing I really want to improve on!).

Avoiding both the chewey and the crunchy for a while!

I'll look into the recaldent, but I'm worried about bones as well as teeth now, so I'd like to get it right in.

And yes, I imagine it's in my sleep. I actually have dreams reasonably regularly where I can't open my mouth, or my teeth are stuck together. It's really hard to open my jaw, and I kind of break my jaw forcing it. It's weird - but I'm guessing it's when I'm actually grinding my teeth in my sleep ...

So I'll get a guard too ... I like having teeth. I plan on having them for a very, very long time.

I grind too! :-(. I got a mouth guard made up. Cost a fortune and it was so uncomfortable! It irritated my gums and also my lower teeth. I haven't had a chance to get a different type as of yet. I hope I can find one that works! I have an internal fracture in a lower molar causing root pain which I'm pretty sure is related to grinding as dentist said the root didn't look infected or diseased when he put on a temporary crown recently! So pretty sure I'm gonna need a root canal as it's still painful! I wish I had control of grinding over night!

Mine's ok to wear - not the most comfortable thing ever, but ok. It's a horseshoe shape that slips onto my top teeth & stays in place. I had one before that covered my palate as well, but this one's much better. Ask them to make it up thick if they can, i've already ground holes into mine, if it's a bit thicker it will last longer.

Yep mines the same. Soft on the inside and hard plastic on the outside. Only covers teeth, not palate. I must clench too cause it hurts my bottom teeth in certain places.

If I were you, i would take it back for some re-shaping, it might need to be smoothed out in places

Sorry to dominate the thread!! :-)
Yeah I did take it back for re shaping probably about 3 times. He didn't want to grind too much off cause if it became too loose it wouldn't have enough suction to hold it on. Then I got jack of having to go back and put it in the too hard basket!

He did recently say there is another kind/ style I could try that is softer but I would wear through it quicker. Will have to look into it.