# Just Broke A Tooth! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 19, 2005, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-broke-a-tooth/304661 "2005-05-19T23:59:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2005, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-broke-a-tooth/304661/1 "2005-05-19T23:59:56Z")
FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK!!! And I don’t know if my dentist is taking tomorrow off or not!! :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :mad: :mad: :mad: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: ☹☹☹☹☹ ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-broke-a-tooth/304661/2 "2005-05-20T00:13:44Z")
Ouch-my sympathies. How bad is it? ---
**Author:** ![LindyHopper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ebca7d/32.png) [@LindyHopper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LindyHopper)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-broke-a-tooth/304661/3 "2005-05-20T00:15:33Z")
Ouchie. And dentists almost _always_ take Fridays off, too. Hope you can schedule an emergency appointment. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-broke-a-tooth/304661/4 "2005-05-20T00:16:49Z")
Not a fun thing at all. I have broken at least five teeth over the years and I can’t recall any one of them being fixed the next day. The latest was in late December last year, before Christmas. Broke it eating popcorn on a _soft_ piece, not a kernel. I called the dentist next morning and they were taking their holiday break that week and the next. I was January 3 getting in to get the crown measured. It’s weird getting used to chewing on one side as well as avoiding the broken tooth with the tongue. My sympathies to you. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-broke-a-tooth/304661/5 "2005-05-20T00:21:36Z")
3rd tooth I’ve broken since 9/11. I started grinding my teeth at night. Not much pain, but I’m freaked. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-broke-a-tooth/304661/6 "2005-05-20T00:22:05Z")
I’ve gotten into the habit of stashing temporary filling kits everywhere I am regularly: home, truck, work, camping gear. The last set of crowns had to be gold, because if they were porcelain I’d just break them, too. Believe me, I feel your pain! ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-broke-a-tooth/304661/7 "2005-05-20T00:23:09Z")
Broke my toof off Broke my toof off Broke my toof off just now… ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-broke-a-tooth/304661/8 "2005-05-20T00:24:45Z")
> [@Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor](#): > > 3rd tooth I’ve broken since 9/11. > I started grinding my teeth at night. > Not much pain, but I’m freaked. First, yuk to the teeth-breaking. As for the teeth-grinding, have you changed or stopped any medication lately? I ask because I had a time of astonishing teeth grinding, um, then teeth-killing and it did coincide with my having failed to renew a medicine prescription., paroxetine/Paxil in my case. I hope you can find a tame dentist soon, though. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-broke-a-tooth/304661/9 "2005-05-20T00:33:07Z")
Oh yes…Ground mine like the dickens before Paxil. Shortly after I stopped Paxil I noticed a definite change in length in my right incisor, My bottom nipper teeth were all flat-topped & even as well as though they had been filed. Now my right incisor is like 1/16 inch shorther than the other, has a notch in the dead center, and if you look real close you can see a hairline fracture running right up from the notch to below the gumline. I can hardly wait. When it finally goes I’m gonna e-mail my buddy [Ink a dink a dink](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=303670) with a Pullitzer Prize-winning ghost-written story eroticizing the pain. 😃 All will love me and despair! And **Busta** , I’m hurting for you bud. How’d it happen this time? ---
**Author:** ![Hokkaido\_Brit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/d26b3c/32.png) [@Hokkaido\_Brit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hokkaido_Brit)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-broke-a-tooth/304661/10 "2005-05-20T00:40:10Z")
You’re in good company - I broke mine the night before last. I was eating, and the old metal crown suddenly fell out (thinking about it later, I’d had an odd sensation when chewing for a few days). I didn’t know it had fallen out and continued to chew - the next bite took the fallen-out crown up to the hollow tooth and smashed it off at gum level. URRRRRK. I noticed that! Spat everything out and fished out crown and shards of tooth. It snapped off at gum level. How the hell is he going to fix that? Luckily my son has an appointment today and he said he’d see me before the kid (will probably only file it off as it’s hurting my mouth, and begin to sort it out but at least I am starting the process.) And we don’t have much spare money right now. Bum bum bumtitty bum. Grrr. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-broke-a-tooth/304661/11 "2005-05-20T02:23:05Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > Broke it eating popcorn on a _soft_ piece, not a kernel. I broke my upper rear molar last month while eating an ordinary salad, with nothing crunchier than lettuce in it. It was just ready to go–all my teeth with old fillings in them end up cracking eventually. So far I have four nice, shiny gold fillings in my mouf. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-broke-a-tooth/304661/12 "2005-05-20T02:24:13Z")
Shiny gold **crowns** , I mean. ---
**Author:** ![drewbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drewbert/32/15890_2.png) [@drewbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewbert)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-broke-a-tooth/304661/13 "2005-05-20T02:49:37Z")
I broke one on a raisin once. Amazing thing is, it just chipped the corner of the molar off, and it didn’t hurt a bit. I could just feel a weird sharp point left on the tooth with my tongue. Still needed to get a crown, of course. **Bosda** , do you wear a bite guard at night for the grinding? Might want to ask the dentist about one if you don’t. ---
**Author:** ![MysteryFellow63427](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e4f/32.png) [@MysteryFellow63427](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysteryFellow63427)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-broke-a-tooth/304661/14 "2005-05-20T03:21:00Z")
Son of a bitch, I see my future in the crystal ball grimacing back at me with points of broken teeth stuck inside his map. ---
**Author:** ![MysteryFellow63427](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e4f/32.png) [@MysteryFellow63427](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysteryFellow63427)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-broke-a-tooth/304661/15 "2005-05-20T03:22:56Z")
His _mouth_. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-broke-a-tooth/304661/16 "2005-05-20T03:51:54Z")
Hey, at least I had some drama in the breaking of my molar – I was trotting along on my horse when he stumbled, scrambled to keep from smashing down onto his knees and maybe somersaulting, and pitched me off over his shoulder. I landed on my shoulders and the nape of my neck and the impact slammed my jaws together. Well, no. No, I didn’t know the tooth was wrecked right away, I was more concerned with wondering whether the world would stop whirling around me, and when it might be safe to try sitting up. Eventually I was able to sit up, then stand, then be helped into my car and driven home, where among the many aches and pains I discovered the surface of the filling in that molar was divoted. The tooth ached and wobbled, too. Made for a fun weekend, so it did. The fall was on Thursday; by Monday most of the bodily misery was over but the tooth… ah, the tooth had moved from mildly upset through grumpy to irate. So irate that other teeth with their own long-standing issues were chiming in with complaints. My dentist decreed death to the dental debris. No root canal, no crown – off with its head, and body, and roots! So I had it extracted, a process far less awful in the doing than in the anticipation, I found. Having a prescription for Vicodin didn’t hurt, either. 😉 Now there’s a void between the next to last molar and the wisdom tooth on the lower left. Chewing on that side is weird, the food tends to tumble into the trough and flop about helplessly. Still and all, it could have been worse – I could have broken all the teeth on that side. Or been told to have a root canal, even though the last one I had, the dentist drilled right past the Novocain into live nerve… :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Kuizelemartz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e19b73/32.png) [@Kuizelemartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kuizelemartz)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-broke-a-tooth/304661/17 "2005-05-20T04:06:41Z")
I’ve been grinding my teeth since I can remember, around age 5. A month ago, at age 38, I finally found a dentist that specializes in TMJ. All the grinding has deterriorated my cartlidge in the jaw, and I’ve even wore down my jaw bone on one side. He took 1365 bucks and made me a guard. Unbelievable but it works. I had headaches, facial numbness and at times, terrible ear aches. I don’t regret spending the money one bit. I got immediate relief from facial numbness and no ear pain. The headaches have decreased by about half. If I were you, I’d go to drug store and try them 20 dollar ones first. Also, the dentist said that most grinding is due to stress. So you might be ok after a while. I think I was born to be stressed. Oh ya, and dental insurance doesn’t recognize TMJ as a real condition. You pay 100 percent. Good luck! ---
**Author:** ![drewbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drewbert/32/15890_2.png) [@drewbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewbert)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-broke-a-tooth/304661/18 "2005-05-20T10:45:01Z")
> [@Ravenous Lady](#): > > He took 1365 bucks and made me a guard. Yikes! I thought mine was expensive! ($400) ---
**Author:** ![Hokkaido\_Brit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/d26b3c/32.png) [@Hokkaido\_Brit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hokkaido_Brit)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-broke-a-tooth/304661/19 "2005-05-20T11:41:59Z")
Drilling mine out today, and taking an impression for the metal middle bit cost about 7 dollars on my Japanese national health insurance. I’ll have to go several times more - once for the metal bit to be stuck in, then for the white over crown to be fitted. Judging from previous procedures I will get out paying about 50-70 dollars overall. My kid’s extraction today cost about 3 dollars including huge amounts of anaesthesia, taking an hour or more to prep him for an extraction that took less than three minutes! But the spacer he had fitted until his adult tooth comes through properly (maybe 6 months…) was not available on the national health system and cost me 200 dollars. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-broke-a-tooth/304661/20 "2005-05-20T15:47:48Z")
Just came back from Dr. Bingham, an old friend off my Dad’s, & the closest thing to a painless dentist I’ve ever known. I was chewing on ice when it broke. No crown needed, though I may need one in a few years. I used to have a guard, but it vanished out of the glass of water I kept it in duringf the day. Along with the glass. Mom’s nearsighted. 🙂