Lost Tooth Filling
Did you lose a filling or crown?
Left unrepaired, a tooth with a lost tooth filling or crown can cause a lot of problems. That filling or crown was there to protect an already weakened tooth, which means that the inner tooth is now exposed and will probably be sore and hard to chew with. A missing crown or filling is cosmetically unappealing (read ugly) if it’s visible. The hole left behind traps food and leaves the tooth susceptible to painful nerve infections and decay.
Find out what caused the tooth filling to fall out or else!
When you experience a lost tooth filling (or crown), it is usually a symptom of a more serious underlying issue, such as an not yet diagnosed tooth cavities. It is critical to figure out what caused the restoration to fail before deciding how to replace it. There is no sense in replacing a restoration just so it can fail again. Read more here.
Becky’s case of Frequent Lost Tooth Fillings
Becky came to me with a large number of cavities and failing restorations. She was really frustrated with her previous dentist because she was continually replacing fillings and crowns.
Becky has a friend in San Antonio who’s one of our patients and who told Becky about us and how we’re committed to figuring out WHY things go wrong and to fixing the ROOT problem. In her desperation, Becky came all the way from California for a consultation. She was determined to figure out how to fix her mouth once and for all and to put a stop to lost tooth filling frequent episodes.
After digging deeper into Becky’s medical history and doing a thorough examination of her failing restorations, it was clear that the failure was related to her dry mouth environment which was likely caused by her medications. Step one in her case was not dental treatment. Step one was determining if her physician could treat her medical conditions with medications that don’t cause dry mouth. Only after we’d determined if she could change her medications, could we start talking about what types of dental solutions would best match her lifestyle and needs.
In Becky’s case, the medications couldn’t be changed, which meant her best option was going to be full mouth dental implants. Dental implants are the only teeth that can survive dry mouth because they can’t decay.
Had we gone ahead and jumped right in replacing fillings and crowns, she would have been back on my doorstep in a matter of months having to do it again. Always get the answer to the question “Why are things failing??” before investing in any repairs!
Click below to learn more about how we replace missing restorations
Crowns
Crowns: When Teeth Crack or Fillings FailCracked teeth eventually break. Fillings eventually fail.
Implants
Implants: A Royal Opportunity
For thousands of years, people have been trying to find a functional way to replace lost teeth.