Biting down or releasing? Crack in tooth vs. bad filling.

[thisisme]

Hello again,
I regret to say my white filling from October still gives me a great deal of pain when biting down. It’s a sharp pain. Subsides almost immediately but jarring nonetheless. My sixth month appt. was postponed due to COVID, and the bite adjustment he did back in November did nothing.

I once read somewhere that the difference between a crack and other problems is WHEN you feel the pain. IE. When you bite down on the tooth vs. when you release the bite. Can anyone tell me if there’s any truth to that? My dentist can be a bit of a perfectionist and even for a second didn’t consider it could be a bad filling. He kept saying it was most likely a crack even though he kept examining it. I find that hard to believe because it was fine until the morning after the filling... the first time I really tried to eat normally. My pain is when biting down. Not releasing.

Is there any sort of dentist logic/reasoning a dentist here could give me that I could say when trying to convince him that it’s not a crack and if he can just redo the filling whenever I do have my appointment?

 

[Enarete]

Wow, sorry to read your dentist is not very open to the idea of the filling not being right. I guess whenever you come to the thought of having to convince a dentist about what you feel, then there is something going wrong.. you shouldn‘t have to convince your dentist about your issues, they should believe you straight away
My experience with cracked teeth is that it hurts on releasing, not on biting down.

 

[letsconnect]

My own experience with cracked teeth is that it hurts on biting down... apparently, symptoms can vary, here's a wikipedia article on the topic:

Cracked Tooth Syndrome

So your dentist may well be correct ? (sorry, this is probably not what you wanted to hear). Unfortunately it can be sometimes be difficult to determine if a tooth is cracked because it may not show up on x-rays.

 

[thisisme]

Thanks for the responses!
He believes the pain is real. He said if the bite adjustment doesn’t fix it (which it didn’t), he will need to further investigate the issue. That’s like a phobic’s worse nightmare. I had just finished a series of five appointments after avoiding for so long, and since it’s not a constant pain, I figured I’d wait the six months. I haven’t actually said the words “will you refill it?” I need to speak up for myself whenever my next visit is. I don’t want further investigation and more X-rays. I just want him to try to refill it. He did four teeth at once and I’ve read white fillings are technique sensitive. The tooth was a replacement silver filling, which was leaking. He said it wasn’t deep at all, and it was fine until he replaced it.

I need to be able to speak up at my next appointment and put my foot down if he again suggests further investigating. He had already confirmed the nerve was fine (in all back molars) and the bite on a ball test confirmed it was only that particular tooth. He examined carefully for cracks and found nothing. I just need to be brave and tell him what I want, instead of him telling me what I need. It’s not so much his fault as it is mine. I just get very submissive in the chair, but I so very much don’t want to avoid eating on that tooth for the rest of my life. ?

 

[Acheygirl]

I was told by a periodontist and dentist that the pain is upon release. When you bite down you put pressure that when you release the tooth separates causing pain. Could your filling be a bit high perhaps? Maybe the nerve is affected?

 

[Gordon]

If everything else has been excluded, bite, crack etc then the most likely reason for this is bonding failure between the tooth and the composite filling. The bite pressure causes some pumping of the fluid in the dentine tubules and you get pain.

The only real solution is to redo the filling, it can happen to anyone no matter how careful, just needs a droplet of saliva getting in at the bonding stage

 

[thisisme]

To anyone following this thread, I have had my appointment after COVID and asked if he could refill it. He will be refilling it free of charge on June 16. I am really hoping this resolves the sharp pain issue. Fingers crossed! I hate that I have to go through a filling process again but glad it is only one tooth because my checkup with well.

 

[krlovesherkids777]

Thisisme,

I'm glad to hear you will be getting this taken care of and he is doing it free of charge! I hope it resolves the pain for you!!

 

[thisisme]

Thisisme,

I'm glad to hear you will be getting this taken care of and he is doing it free of charge! I hope it resolves the pain for you!!

Thank you! I’m optimistic. It will be so nice if it works. Not exactly looking forward to the filling but I think I can handle it. I felt bad it was so long, but I was like “I was going to tell you in March but then COVID, then April, and COVID and you didn’t have availability in May... so here we are.” Haha.

 

[comfortdentist]

These things happen to all. There is no way to know the outcome of changing the filling without trying.