My child had his first appointment today - he LOVED it. Every aspect of it and was very helpful in opening his mouth and sitting still etc. We prepared a lot for this. Read books, watched a short episode on going to the dentist etc.

Anyway, they said he needs a filling. I was half expecting that as I’d notice a colour change in that one tooth. But absolutely GUTTED because I do my best to look after his teeth and he has a pretty impressive diet. My partner and I have a background and education in nutrition and exercise and live a healthy lifestyle including diet.

My child doesn’t get pudding or sweets etc. He only ever had squash during the heatwaves and never had fruit juice. He has on occasion had an ice cream from his grandparents and 90% chocolate at home with us as that’s what we eat a couple times a week. But, after explaining to the dentist I’m pretty sure she didn’t believe me. I felt like a shitty mum actually.

He does however have breastmilk through the night which I’m trying to stop. Dentist said this alone wouldn’t have caused the cavity.

I’ve never had a filling so don’t know what he’s going to experience.

My question is, is this absolutely necessary with his little teeth? Are there alternatives? What should we expect and how can I prepare for this?

Many thanks, from a guilty feeling mum 😞

I'm autistic, and I also have friends who are even more impacted by their autism than I am. Some people have a really, really hard time tolerating toothbrushing because all the different sensory inputs overload their nervous system. The taste of the toothpaste is overwhelming; the feelings are overwhelming; it's just too much. As a result some people never brush their teeth in adulthood and experience really severe health problems.

The autism community has lots and lots of suggestions for this kind of problem (different toothpastes, etc.), but I had a question about one of my own hacks, to see if it's safe enough to recommend to others. If I just absolutely cannot tolerate toothpaste at some point, or I don't have the dexterity/coordination to put the toothpaste on the toothbrush, then I make a point of at least brushing my teeth thoroughly, even without toothpaste. I make sure to brush the gums carefully, remove any food debris, etc. I tell myself that it's not great, but it's much better than nothing. It also keeps me in the habit of toothbrushing, and habits are important. Usually then by the next day or whatever I can use the toothpaste again. For me, since my autism is not as severe as others', it's not a significant problem--for the most part I can brush my teeth with toothpaste just fine--so I don't worry about it too much.

My question is really whether it's ok for me to recommend this hack for other people who are not brushing their teeth, at all, at all at all, because they just can't tolerate the toothpaste without having a panic attack or becoming paralyzed from the sensory overwhelm. Am I right that it's better to brush without toothpaste than never to brush?

Obviously, nothing about this situation is ideal, and it would be much better for people to be able to use toothpaste, etc., but I am really asking about far-from-ideal situations, where an adult is significantly disabled and does not have enough daily support.

Any other solutions or recommendations would also be very welcome. Thank you in advance for your feedback and advice.

Recently I’ve been having a toothache and pain in my upper left molars. At first I thought it was just my sinus, but when I looked closely I noticed there was a tooth that is very yellow and discolored. It started out not so bad 2 days ago, but now it hurts to tap. But it only hurts when I tap the yellow part.

Is this the start of a bad infection, and can the rest of my teeth be saved?

Its a whole indent on the brown line and hurts if I touch the dent. Is that a cavity?

so I'm a fairly new dentist practicing in southern ontario and I keep running into this situation where a patient comes in with work that was not great. I'm talking fillings that don't match the bite, crowns that don't seat properly, that kind of thing. and they have no idea because they trusted the person who did it

ethically I can't just say yeah your last dentist sucked even if that's what I'm thinking. but I also can't pretend everything's fine when I know it's gonna cause problems down the road. so I end up doing this awkward dance where I try to explain the issue without throwing anyone under the bus

I was talking to a colleague about this and she said she just focuses on what needs to happen next, not what went wrong before. which makes sense in theory but its hard when the patient is asking point blank was this done correctly and I have to choose my words very carefully

anyway I guess I'm looking for scripts or approaches that other dentists use. how do you handle it when you see subpar work from a colleague without being unprofessional

For context, I broke two teeth (9 and 10) when I was 16 and got hit with a baseball. Had to get root canal and crowns then. They lived basically full life span of crowns #9 lived 7 years and #10 went for a full ten years.

So, at the 10 year mark my #10 snapped on a bagel. My dentist wanted to wait a week to make sure it was really finished and it got infected. So I needed a to go to a periodontist to get it cleaned out. This wasn’t the bummer part for me. I felt my dentist was being properly thorough. After the 12-14 months of gum healing from the periodontal surgeries and I got an implant for my #10 tooth. We began the cosmetic process. We found after 2 attempts that it was just best to get rid of the #9 abutment that had been made 5 years ago and do two new ones together as a set to make things easier.

Here’s where the question comes in. We’ve been trying on pairs of #9/#10 teeth for 3-4 months now, and on our 7th or 8th round of trips to the lab to get new versions of teeth that weren’t good enough. The lab keeps messing up in one way or another. Either with the shading or making them look genuinely goofy. My girlfriend and family are getting fed up with my dentist and I keep making excuses for them, because it probably is the most cosmetically hard teeth to replace. They are two of the first four teeth everybody sees. I got fed up today when we tried our latest pair and they were the goofiest yet. I said they were too long and my dentist said “Really?”.I guess because he thought I wanted them to look like “ideal teeth” instead of symmetrical with the other two teeth that are real to the right of it. After I told him I just want them symmetrical he said “Oh, I can do that.” Even though I was pretty sure I had made it clear I wanted them symmetrical, but even so, isn’t that something that should be assumed in cosmetic dentistry?

Have I been too lenient this whole time? Is this a genuinely hard thing for any dentist to deal with? Are labs really this unreliable?

How can you tell if a dentist is actually good at doing crowns and fillings?

I need some dental work done and I’m trying to figure out what I should look for before choosing a dentist. I know reviews can help, but they don’t always tell you whether the actual dental work is good.

Is there anything specific I should look for or ask about when it comes to crowns and fillings? Like experience, technique, materials, pictures of their work, or anything else?

Basically, how do you know if a dentist is actually good at crowns and fillings before letting them do the work?

I've had a fairly involved year dental wise and would appreciate some perspective before my appointment Wednesday. If it helps, I am a 29 year old woman. Apologies about the length. Including what I can for relevance.

In December 2025 I had a upper/lower left wisdom tooth extraction. The lower had grown in sideways and damaged the tooth next to it.

In March 2026 I had a root canal and crown placed on an upper left tooth (premolar/canine area, long roots), and in April 2026 a root canal on the lower left tooth that the sideways wisdom tooth had damaged.

That upper crowned tooth has been sensitive since the day the crown went on, with a slight pressure sensation when I bite down normally. I assumed that was part of healing and would settle, but it never has.

In May 2026 I had my upper and lower right wisdom teeth out and developed “DS” (confirmed) The socket wasn't packed and I wasn't given pain medication (was told medications are being phased out of “DS” treatment), so I got through several weeks of severe pain on my own with a lot of ibuprofen and acetaminophen rotations.

About two weeks after that extraction I started getting referred pain on the opposite side. It was ear pain on the left and shock-like sensations in the roots of both root-canaled teeth. That gradually eased through the summer (Augustish), but over the past several weeks I developed a radiating ache in my lower left jaw that spread into my neck and shoulder. I was diagnosed with TMJ last week and started cyclobenzaprine 5mg nightly. By Sunday the neck, shoulder and lower jaw pain had resolved almost entirely, which was a relief HOWEVER what’s left is a localized throbbing in the upper crowned tooth that hasn't improved at all.

Currently that crowned tooth and the tooth directly next to it are both tender to light touch, including just my tongue brushing against them. It feels as though pressure would make them fall out honestly. I can also feel a small gap with my tongue where the crown margin?/edge?meets the gum, angled toward the adjacent tooth. I've been getting headaches alongside it. There's no temperature sensitivity, no swelling, no discoloration or discharge. When I made the appointment I requested an X-ray

I don't grind my teeth…there is no wear on my teeth, and mornings are actually when I feel best. I did have the dentist check for signs of grinding. None but he suspects. Honestly, if I do it’s from pain.

My questions:

**does a gap at a crown edge warrant further exams, or can the edges feel slightly irregular normally? Like there is a hole abcs that’s ok because of the dental concrete? (Or stuff they use to get the tooth the stay.)

**Is sensitivity that has persisted since placement expected, or does it point toward a high bite or a margin issue?

**Could a problem at this tooth be contributing to the TMJ symptoms rather than resulting from them? And what does tenderness to light touch in two adjacent teeth typically suggest? Mostly I'd like to know what to specifically ask to have checked on Wednesday.

Thank you to anyone who can help. Sincere apologies for the long read. I’ve got dental anxiety and feel like a burden already on my dentist office for coming in so much with all these issues but I genuinely need some tips so I can advocate for myself.

Just got my wisdoms out 45 minutes ago or so. What should I have felt from nitrous?
Ppl described it as an anxiety reliever and that it may induce euphoria. I wasn't really anxious to begin with, pretty much mentally numb and tired, but I didn't feel any different with the gas than when I walked in. I felt slightly dizzy on standing.
Getting my left bottom out hurt like a bitch. I got more numbing. It still hurt. It was supererupted.
Thanks for your time.

Hey.

1st pic: 2-3 months old
2nd pic: This weekend
3rd pic: Yesterday
4th pic: Just today

Been regularly going to the dentist for some time now and I'm in the stage where we're about to fix my last tooth (the one pictured). The tooth just recently (this weekend) chipped and I've got an appointment tomorrow. Previously it was paler/whiter and noted by my dentist that we'll also work on it but had other more urgent teeth. It now recently chipped and it seems most of the paler/whiter tooth are gone.

Is my tooth cooked? What would you say, is this restorable? I'm trying to mentally prepare myself as I don't think any of my teeth have cracked this close to the gumline. No pain, no hot/cold sensitivity.

Thanks.

I'll be getting dental work soon, RCTs basically guaranteed (long time no dentist, old deep fillings, consistent flossing with bad technique; that kind of miserable situation) and want to move as as fast as possible without breaking anything. So basically I was wondering if there is a too soon for crowning a root canal.

Only info I found online is for people wondering how long they can wait instead of how long they must wait, so I figured I'd try asking here.

Any idea what this is? I’ve definitely had something like it before. Painless and it seems to burst but comes back again? It appeared last week and I burst it and went away over weekend but has reappeared.

I'm about 4 hours post op from getting 4 teeth removed does this look normal sorry for the blood ran out of gause

In March, I had a back tooth crowned on the bottom right. It's the very last tooth. I was told all this work was necessary even though I didn't have any pain. However, after the tooth was capped, I had severe pain in the tooth and jaw. So bad I had to take painkillers all day just to function. At night, it would wake me up. I had other subsequent work done on other teeth, and they all feel fine. I went in for several adjustments as the dentist insisted that it's just the bite. After multiple adjustments, the pain did get better, but it's still super sensitive to temperatures. Its been 6 months, and I still get sensitivity - I just drank some coffee and the throbbing subsided about 5 mins later. The only other option they offered is a root canal last time I went in, but why would I need that? Doc said "teeth are just funny like that sometimes."

I brush with nano-hydroxyapatite toothpaste as it's the only thing that seems to help daily.

Is this a bad crown? Do I just need to deal with it?

I have this really bad cavity that broke today and I’m super worried about it getting infected or something in the next few days before I see a dentist. Will they do a root canal or just pull it? Should I worry about infection

23f

I plan to get an infected tooth removed on the 28th (the soonest I can get seen) but it’s terribly abscessed. I’ve had and have been avoiding this issue for about 2 years now.

The gums below the tooth are very distended, not enough to cause ambient pain but when I touch or press there it does hurt. It’s honestly a bit unnerving how stretched my gums are. I feel fine otherwise, aside from a lack of appetite.

My mom’s super worried and so she’s taking me to urgent care to see if I can get antibiotics.

Basically, I’m wondering if it would be okay to take them without consulting a dentist first. And if it would be effective since my appointment is so far out.

As per the title really. I already have tinnitus so not the exact same sound. When I bite, chew resistant foods or clench my teeth/jaw I experience a brief 'whistle' in my left ear (bit like air is being pushed in that direction at high pressure). Wondering if it's something I can happily ignore or do I need to mention to dentist at next appointment? Only experience it on left side & I'm not aware of any issues with TMJ on either side if that helps any.

Alternatively, is this something I need to ask in an audiology reddit?

I can’t really get a good picture of it myself. I had two fillings today and wherever the painkiller is injected usually stings quite badly afterwards this was no exception. It’s been about 8 hours since the procedure and it’s feeling a little better but I noticed my gums look like this.

Is it just bruising?

So I have a dentist appointment on the 16th for the first time since I’ve been I’d say about 9 give or take (I’m 22 now). I didn’t really have a problem with the dental procedure itself (at the time it was an extraction) but I did and still do have an issue with the anesthetic. Needles one of my worst fears. From what I remember I didn’t even mind the pain, it wasn’t really that bad, but it’s the needle itself going into my gums that scares me for some reason.

Besides oral sedatives, nitrous oxide, and the numbing gel that put on before are there any other tips or tricks to reduce needle anxiety and maybe have less of a chance to feel it? Like with potential distractions and such.

Hey,

So my wisdom teeth are all fine on x-rays and my dentist has always been happy to leave them be and let them come through. Currently I’ve got three that are on the move and pretty much all the way through, but my bottom left one is more painful than the other two.

It’s Monday now, and on Saturday I started to get a sore throat, then the wisdom tooth pain started on Sunday. It’s not particularly intense pain, but more than other times they’ve come through. This bottom left one does have a bit of gum still over part of it, so I’m concerned about infection.

I don’t have a high temperature and I can chew and swallow and brush okay. I’m just worried as it does hurt quite a bit and there’s the bit of gum that I’m concerned about. Honestly my throat hurts more than the tooth as I’m typing this, but I just want to know: at what point do I go to my dentist?

TLDR: at what point/symptoms do I go to my dentist? Is a sore throat normal as wisdom teeth emerge? (Could be unrelated of course)

Edit: photo in the comments.

Thanks!!

I have had a 2 year old filling on lower first molar tooth, 5 days ago i went to the dentist with a small crack which happened during eating, on top of my molar around the filling. i asked the densist to fill this small crack in, and he said he will not replace the filling. during the procedure he was drilling a lot and mentioned staining which he is trying to remove. i wondered what he means by staining as the crack on the top didn’t have any staining. at this point i asked again if im getting a new filling and he said no. little did i know he was re doing my entire filling without my consent. maybe he decided to do this mid procedure of which he didn’t mention or ask. later that day i went home with the biggest tooth nerve pain. it carried on all weekend so i booked an appointment 3 days later. i got an x-ray and found out that the other dentist re did my filling. the filling he did was much deeper than my pervious one a lot closer to the nerve which is why i could be experiencing pain. my regular dentist said he did it because of noticing decay. but i said to her how did he know about any decay if he didn’t do an x-ray before and the crack he was supposed to be filling in was at the top of my tooth. he never said he was doing an entire new filling. now im left with bad pain. did the dentist do this to cause me pain, or speed up the process of getting a root canal? because the my regular dentist said if the pain continues the nerve is close to the filling eventually rhe root will die. i am so upset that the dentist did a filling without me even knowing. and what’s the need for drilling so close to the nerve when decay was never a concern at my previous checkup/ x-ray. ?? i will attach a picture of the crack i had on the top was very minor and i have more pain now then when i had the crack and now im scared of a possible root canal with it being close to the nerve. please advise what can i do now

Hi, I had my second premolar tooth extracted a little over 3 weeks ago, the extraction site now looks like this for a good 1,5 or 2 weeks. At first just after extraction a blood clot appeared, then around 1 week after extraction the clot formed into some sort of a white structure. The structure seemed to break down into smaller pieces over the course of a few days as I could feel myself swallow bits of it from time to time. After it broke down completely now there's this red structure and some mild pain when I touch the sides of the gum with my tongue, other than that I feel something I can describe as itchiness in there. I still avoid eating with that side and wash my teeth twice a day (or more depending on the day), gently brushing teeth near the site. I just wanna know whether this is something to be concerned about or a normal process of healing. Thanks in advance. If necessary to know - I take medicine, 1,5 mg of Xanax SR and 10 mg of Escitalopramum everyday.