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May 2012 Moms
aldavis78
member
Just Broke a Molar. Awesome.
aldavis78
member
I was just eating a quasadilla for dinner and thought I bit into a really hard piece of chicken. I was a little worried about what I had bitten down on until I ran my tongue around my mouth and realized that I was missing a HUGE chunk of my back left molar.
I have never had any issue with my teeth. I take good care of them and floss daily (because I heard women who floss usually go full term) but I do grind them at night. Then I realized that even though I drink milk like it's going out of style that LO is probably still leeching it from my body. CRAPPERS!
Thankfully the tooth doesn't hurt and isn't bleeding but half of it is broken to my gum. And so of course it's Saturday and I'll have to wait until Monday and in the meantime I'll be obsessing over it and hoping it won't become abscessed.
Has this happened to anyone else?
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Just Broke a Molar. Awesome.
You should be OK. Just get to your dentist ASAP. And you can in deed have an x-ray at this point and time in your pregnancy. They will double up the lead vest, especially around your belly area. A PA (periapical x-ray) especially at an office that uses digital x-ray equipment gives off less radiation than the sun outside. So, you will be fine. If there is still a good base of the tooth left, he will be able to A. build it up temporarily so you'll at least have something there or B. build it up, and put a temporary crown on while the permanent crown is being made (if they don't have an in-house lab and needs to be sent out). If there isn't much left of the tooth, his recommendation may be to just extract the remaining bit that is left. But from the sounds of the story, you may have some viable structure left. Assuming the tooth is still alive and the root isn't dead (which would then result in a root canal before the crown preparation) then these should be your options. But, anything can happen the longer you wait.
Hope this helps a bit!
Oh, I've been in the dental field for 5 years lol so I enjoy giving people a heads up with dental problems (:
Just read that again, if it's broken down to the gum with no salvageable base to build up on - chances are he/she may do an extraction of the remaining piece of tooth. BUT, it's a molar so you'll find comfort in knowing that no one will see it anyway. If that should be the end result.
OH and I don't floss, never have, in my life. I've had 1 cavity my whole life and it was when I was 13. No braces, nodda. My patients always ask what I do to make my teeth so white and straight - I tell them I brush when I wake up and before bed. Some pple just have stronger teeth than others and pregnancy affects them all differently.
Good Luck!!
X-ray's in the first tri are STRICTLY frowned upon, second tri not to much, third tri definitely doable. At all the offices I've worked at we have all done the same. We have done root canals on women in their 3rd tri and that needs a minimum of 2 x-ray's throughout the entire procedure. If you look it up online you'll see. A broken tooth is a dental emergency because it can only get worse if the Dr doesn't see what this break entails. X-ray's have made leaps and bounds in years past and while x-ray's done at your 6 month check up can be totally skipped during pregnancy because they are NOT a necessity UNLESS you're having a problem. Especially during pregnancy is when your teeth are most susceptible to so many different things. So, for an emergency, a dentist will do an x-ray and it will in not hurt your LO. ESPECIALLY not this far along.
What about x-rays used in dental work during pregnancy?
Routine x-rays, usually taken during annual exams, can usually be postponed until after the birth. X-rays are necessary to perform many dental procedures, especially emergencies. According to the American College of Radiology, no single diagnostic x-ray has a radiation dose significant enough to cause adverse effects in a developing embryo or fetus.
I had this happen at 35 weeks myself. I went to the dentist. She said she could do X-rays but since she wouldn't be fixing it at that point we decided not to do it. She put in a temp filling and have an appt on 05/23 to have X-rays and fix it. I have not had any pain or problems. I have now had my LO and am glad I still put it off for a few more weeks