What To Do When Your Filling Or Crown Falls Out
Looking after your teeth is important and it’s not something you can do by yourself, regular dental visits are important. If you don’t currently have a dentist check out the dentist near me and get your check-up booked in.
However, while dentists are excellent at spotting issues and helping you save your teeth into old age, it doesn’t mean you will never get a filling or a crown. This is true even if you are one of the 50% of Australians that do brush their teeth regularly.
The average filling or crown should last five years but can survive as long as ten or even fifteen years. Unfortunately, at some point, that means it will fall out and you need to be prepared to deal with it.
Remove It
This may sound obvious but if the filling or crown has fallen out you need to remove it from your mouth. Leaving it or trying to force it back into position doesn’t work and increases the likelihood of you swallowing the filling or crown. That’s not a good thing.
The old filling or crown is unlikely to be of any use to the dentist. You can throw it away.
Use Dental Wax
When a filling or crown has fallen out the damaged tooth is once again exposed to bacteria. As the enamel is already worn bacteria can settle in quickly and cause a variety of issues. To avoid this you’ll want to add a little dental wax to the area to protect the open tooth.
Get A Dental Appointment
With the immediate issue sorted you’ll need to contact your dentist. It’s important to tell them the issue, you don’t need a standard appointment, you need a quicker, urgent appointment. If you explain the issue you’ll find the dentist keeps slots available for issues like this.
Simply share the issue and get the first available appointment. The quicker it is resolved, the better, a lengthy wait will increase the likelihood of further complications.
Keep It Clean
You’ll want to pay extra attention to this area of your mouth as it is vital to keep the area clean. That means, as well as brushing twice a day, you should rinse your mouth with warm salty water. This is effective at removing debris and killing harmful bacteria.
It is important to continue to brush the affected area, the risk of damaging the area further is much lower than the likelihood of further tooth decay.
Consider Your Diet
While waiting for your dental appointment you should consider what you are eating. Anything that has high levels of sugar in is more likely to cause issues to your exposed tooth.
Stick to non-processed foods that are low in sugar. In addition, there are many acidic foods that you should avoid. These are more likely to attack your teeth and cause further damage.
If you experience pain you can take over-the-counter painkillers, but this isn’t always an issue.
