It’s an awful feeling. You’ve just bitten down on something hard and you felt a crunch, but the crunch wasn’t the food.. It was a filling that just cracked. While there’s nothing fun about experiencing something like this, it’s important not to panic.
What to Do When a Filling Comes Out of Your Tooth
If a cracked filling is so severe that a piece of it becomes loose, the first thing you should do is carefully remove it from your mouth. You don’t want to end up swallowing it or breathing it in. If you do accidentally swallow it, don’t panic. It normally passes without a problem. If you breathe it in, however, it could lead to a lung infection. Once you’ve got the filling safely out of your mouth, call the dentist right away.
Cracks can sometimes occur right after the filling is placed if the filling is higher than the rest of the tooth surface. The force of biting can cause a lot of impact on the raised portion of the filling. Cracks also can occur over time, as biting and chewing forces wear on the filling and the restored tooth. Small cracks can also occur at the edges of a filling. These usually are caused by wear over time and can often be repaired.
Treatment of Broken Fillings
If you’re experiencing any kind of dental emergency, including a cracked filling, give your Gilbert dental office a call right away. From there, we can recommend the best treatment. In most cases, a cracked filling is replaced with a new one, but if there are larger cracks or a significant portion of the tooth or filling becomes dislodged, a crown may be necessary.
It’s important to receive treatment right away. Many teeth fractures start out small, but the problem gets bigger if treatment is delayed, which could ultimately lead to a need for tooth extraction.