Filling or extraction

[anna97]

I recently went to an emergency appointment with a different dentist to normal and they said I have a cavity on my last wisdom tooth (the other 3 have been removed now). They said that their recommendation would be to fill it but I didn’t book an appointment with them because I figured I’d just go to my usual dentist.

I’m pretty sure my normal dentist will want to extract it, as they wanted it removed with the others (two of which were done at the hospital) but the hospital didn’t think it was necessary so left it. I had a sealant put on it a couple of years ago I think, but it’s now a lot more painful at the moment and now I’m second guessing what to do.

I can’t decide if I should go back to the dentist who recommended it be filled (I’m a lot less scared of a filling, the extraction terrifies me even though I’ve had 4 teeth out now, it makes me feel physically sick) or suck it up and see my usual dentist and go with their plan. I’ve read a lot and it’s just confused me - a lot of sites say that if the wisdom tooth has decay it’s best to just remove it because it shows it’s hard to clean properly?

I guess I’m asking what your preference would be so that I can make a bit of a more informed decision about who I’m going back to! Thanks

 

[Gordon]

Is it painful spontaneously or just on cold/hot/sweet or pressure?
Whether it should be removed or not really depends on what sort of pain it's causing, how big the cavity is, where the cavity is on the tooth and what the position of the tooth is like.

Just because it's a wisdom tooth doesn't automatically mean it needs removed. Not much help really, am I? Sorry!

 

[anna97]

@Gordon it had been completely fine for quite a while - my normal dentist felt it should come out but when the hospital said they didn’t think it needed to, I didn’t really care. Partly because it was one less appointment to go to, and therefore one less panic attack, and partly because I wasn’t feeling any pain in it so I figured it was fine.

But then a few weeks ago I started to randomly get pain, made worse if I was drinking something hot. Now it’s just painful all the time and I’ve been getting ear pain which I think is related as it only started when the wisdom tooth pain started getting worse.

Rational me knows I should probably call my dentist, scared me doesn’t want to do that for as long as possible

 

[Gordon]

Rational me says you probably want to deal with this at your convenience, rather than the tooth's

 

[robertsonic]

difficult to advise without sight of tooth and maybe an xray. if no pain would probably ok to leave untreated. need to clean it very well before bedtime and keep diet of sugar frequency low. ian robertson (retired dentist)