Bad taste in mouth one week after two fillings

[Anne2021]

I need help again. I had two fillings a week ago today. I have had a bad taste in my mouth ever since. The closest descriptive word would be that it tastes bitter. Second choice would be metallic. I tried not to think about it because I've been more concerned that the fillings were deep and might not succeed, so I've been paying closer attention to sensations and on the lookout for pain. As my concern about a pain-related emergency has subsided, with each day I get more concerned about this taste. At first, I chalked it up to all the weird tastes I experienced during the appointment. It's not going away and as far as I can tell, it seems worse instead of better, at least subjectively.

There is also a mild tingling. It's hard to describe. I have had burning mouth syndrome symptoms off and on over the years. I had 19 removed in December, which resulted in 18, 19, and 20 being gone on the lower left, so my tongue felt odd from having no tooth support over there. I had some symptoms since then that I would describe as related to burning mouth syndrome, but this is different and definitely began during the fillings procedure seven days ago.

I had 13 and 14 on the upper left filled. 13 was a large composite - three surfaces - mesial, distal, and occlusal. 14 is crowned tooth that had decay at the gum line on the lingual side, and the dentist said she used a glass ionomer. During the fillings procedure, I tasted and smelled different things. I remember at one point, something touched my tongue and tasted pretty strong and possibly similar to what I am tasting now, but I'm not sure that is exactly it. It was after she said she was done removing the old filling and the decay, so it must have been the etching? adhesive? or the filling?

I also don't have 18, 19, and 20 on the lower left anymore so my tongue really ends up against 13 and 14 a lot on the side. I can often see the contours of those teeth if I look at my tongue in the mirror, like when I check things out when brushing my teeth. I don't know if other people's tongues look like that or not. Right off, I think the taste is worse when they are up against those teeth as opposed to when I consciously pull my tongue away for a while and try to have it just rest on the floor of my mouth, but I don't know if that means anything. Subjectively, I experience the taste and mild tingling as on the left side of the tongue - and not the whole left side, but back a ways, near where the teeth touch it and where the material touched it during the fillings procedure. Any thoughts?

I called the dentist office this afternoon, and they are going to talk to her and get back to me. Now I'm wondering if I am intolerant to one of the materials used and if the fillings will have to come out. I'm kind of starting to panic a bit about being able to tolerate this, as well as how in the world to go back to the dentist for new fillings or extraction or whatever has to come next to get rid of this, if that's even possible.

 

[Gordon]

What did the dentist say when you got the call back?

 

[Anne2021]

@Gordon I haven't gotten a call back yet.

 

[Anne2021]

@Gordon I just got the call back from the dentist's office. The woman who called said, "She [the dentist] said you're more than welcome to come in for some mouth rinse and a tongue scraper." That's it. Now what? Is there nothing that could be wrong that she should look at? I take it this is her way of saying that I am not welcome to have her check things out.

 

[Anne2021]

@Gordon I wondered what the mouth rinse was and whether I could just order it online or if it was what she gave me last week (chlorhexidine). I also saw that tongue scrapers can be ordered online. I didn't want to work another trip over there into my schedule if I could work it out another way. I called the office and asked about the rinse. I got a different person and asked if it was the chlorhexidine since I still have some of that. She said, no that chlorhexidine wouldn't help with a bad taste. She had me talk to the original woman who called me this morning. That woman said she could ask the dentist because it was a prescription and it would be given to me in a brown bottle without a label on it so she would need to find out. She called me back and began the call by saying that the dentist said that there wouldn't be anything they've done that would cause the foul taste. Then she said that the rinse I was supposed to come and pick up to help with it was in fact the chlorhexidine.

I have looked it up online to see if it helps with that to determine if I want to try it and what I found is that chlorhexidine actually causes a bitter, metallic taste. Is that correct? I didn't use it last week since I am generally leery of anything new to me and figured that my gums might just heal a little slower without it. (The gums are in good shape and healed up fine from what I can tell). What do you make of all this?

 

[Anne2021]

@Gordon I've been thinking about at what point in the fillings I tasted the taste similar to what I am tasting now. It was after she worked on 14, the tooth with the crown. She said she placed a glass ionomer filling. When she had done so, she asked me to feel it with my tongue and see if it still felt rough. I told her that it felt like fine grit sandpaper. She sanded some more, but seemed to be expressing that she didn't want to do too much or go too far (don't know what that would mean or why). After she sanded a little more, she had me feel it again and it felt much smoother. I'm not sure, but I think that is when I tasted what I am tasting now whenever my tongue rests against the upper teeth instead of me consciously holding it away.

 

[Gordon]

Chx definitely tastes pretty horrible, there's a "mint" version which is a bit better but it's not great. Glass ionomer tastes like lemon juice. But once it's set then that's it, there's no free compound to leach out or whatever, similar for composites, once they've got set, that's pretty much it.

I would worry about using Chx because it does alter then regular flora of the mouth and could upset your taste further. Tongue scraping might be a good idea, just go gently to start with.

Beyond that I'm a bit stumped I'm afraid, sorry.

 

[Anne2021]

@Gordon Thank you. Lemon juice wouldn't be a bad description for what I tasted that day. I'm thinking right now it seems more bitter than sour, but the two aren't that far apart. When you say that once it is set, that's it for both the glass ionomer and the composite, and there is no free compound to leach out... - If the filling failed or didn't bond correctly or didn't cure properly, etc. (I'm not sure what all) - if it basically failed in some way - then could it be leaching out?

Is there nothing that should be examined in person, or would there really be nothing to see no matter what?

I just can't get over how even putting a piece of hamburger bun between the teeth and my tongue gives me respite for a few minutes or even pulling my tongue away from those teeth to escape the taste, but I can't leave a bun in there or consciously hold my tongue in an unnatural position all day.

 

[Gordon]

If the filling failed or didn't bond it would fall out.
Given that your having symptoms then I'd want a look in person, just to see if I could figure out what the problem is.

 

[Anne2021]

@Gordon Thank you. I would think she would at least want to give it a quick look, too, but I guess not.

 

[Anne2021]

@Gordon Yesterday was eight weeks since I got the two fillings (glass ionomer on 14 and composite on 13), and the taste in my mouth is as bad as ever to worse. It is so metallic all the time, like I am sucking on coins. I'm wracking my brain to figure out what to do. One thing came to mind as time has passed. When the dentist did the glass ionomer filling - lingual between the existing crown and the gum line - after she did it, she asked me how it felt to my tongue. I told her it felt like fine-grit sandpaper. She decided to adjust it - I don't know exactly what she did - sand it? buff it? - whatever dentists do. Just before she did, she expressed concern that she didn't want to go too far or do too much - not sure what she was getting at since I'm not a dentist. After she did it, I told her it felt smoother and less like sandpaper. That is where she left it.

As a dentist, do you know what she would have been concerned about in terms of adjusting it too much? Could that have anything to do with this horrible taste?

If the cavities weren't so deep, I already would have gone somewhere else and asked them to redo them, hoping for a different material or something. That could be difficult, though, as I can't get her office to respond as to exactly what materials were used beyond the generic classification of glass ionomer and composite. As it is, I'm contemplating getting both extracted because this is disgusting all day, every day, and I'm hitting a breaking point.

 

[Gordon]

As a dentist, do you know what she would have been concerned about in terms of adjusting it too much? Could that have anything to do with this horrible taste?

Best guess? Either taking too much off and weakening the filling substantially or else making a concave shape in it that'd be a food trap.

No, I don't think so, unless there is some kind of food trap created.

TBH, pretty much all different brands of filling material are much the same, within the broad categories, one composite is very like another, same with glass ionomer.
Given that the original dentist isn't interested, it might be worth going someplace else for a second opinion?

 

[Anne2021]

@Gordon Thank you so much for your response. I am sorry to delay my reply. I do have some general health issues that deplete my energy and was just too tired to address this, especially given how discouraging it is.

I did go to see another dentist for a second opinion on 5/25. That would have been just over 5 weeks after they were placed. He didn't see anything suspicious and couldn't think of any reason why this would be happening. He also suggested the food trap idea, but there really is nothing stuck and he didn't see anything stuck. I think this taste is too powerful for it to be anything like that anyway. It's like I'm sucking on a mouthful of coins.

Since he couldn't help and we have a very good dental college in town here at the university, I made an appointment with an oral pathologist. I saw him on 6/1. He was very thorough and interested, but the best he could come up with was burning mouth syndrome. I've looked it up and certainly a metallic taste can be one of the symptoms. It also often feels like my mouth, including my tongue, is coated with something, which is another symptom of burning mouth syndrome. He couldn't say why it would suddenly start when the fillings were placed, though. It was exactly at that time that it began. Nothing like this the day before or the weeks or months before. That seems like a big coincidence. From what I saw regarding burning mouth syndrome, two of the causes could be intolerance to dental materials or psychosomatic/psychogenic origins.

The oral pathologist said there has been some success treating burning mouth syndrome by rinsing with a liquid prescription of clonazepam - rinsing and spitting it out. I had told him that I can't have sedating medications when he took my medical history. My mitochondrial deficiency has the effect that the respiratory depression associated with sedating drugs is exaggerated with me - even an adult dose of Benadryl is unwise for me. I looked up the clonazepam when used this way. It is a sedating drug and according to available information, it can still have that effect even used as a mouth rinse, not just taken internally. Some people reported sedation as a side effect. So - if it's an intolerance to dental materials, clonazepam won't be a real solution. If it's psychosomatic/psychogenic, it certainly won't be helped by taking a medication that I am afraid will harm me and which may indeed harm me. And if it isn't either of these reasons, then what?

I feel absolutely stuck and that I will end up having to pull both teeth to get any relief. I should have done one at a time. I wanted to originally, but the dental assistant that answered the phone when I made the appointment pushed me and absolutely would NOT allow me to make it for a time slot for one filling. She insisted that since the two were next to each other, I needed to do both at once. I went against my better judgment and just pushed through both and now I don't know which one is bothering me, so I will probably have to pull both if this doesn't get any better. Then I won't have any teeth on the upper left from 12 through 15.

 

[Gordon]

Just a couple of thoughts...

BMS is very strongly linked with stress and (especially in women) with low serum folic acid and Vitamin B12, I assume the oral path guy organised blood tests, if not then I suggest that you get them done.

I've not heard of Clonazepam rinse for BMS, so can't comment on that.

Trouble with going ahead with extractions is that there's no guarantee at all that it would stop your symptoms.

 

[jackfive]

@Anne2021 did you get a resolution for this? might be in the same boat