A few days ago I was experiencing some pain in my lower left rear-most molar. I had a filling in that tooth, and I thought maybe the filling had loosened or partially come out. (I could see a line of discoloration).
Upon going to the dentist, he said that it was majorly fractured, and was surprised that I wasn’t in incredible pain. He said he would remove the fragment that was obviously loose, and would then be able to tell if the rest of the tooth was salvagable (but he was preparing me that I might loose the whole tooth).
He concluded that the molar was beyond hope, and extracted the rest of the tooth. (By the way, he used a topical anesthetic and nitrious oxide, and the experience really wasn’t very painful).
He said that it’s possible that there may be future problems caused by the missing tooth, like the tooth above it might drift down, which might cause pain, or there may be some shifting of the tooth next to the gap.
So what is going to happen back there? Should I definitely get an implant, or should we just wait and see if any shifting occurs?
I am NOT a dentist, but have had teeth pulled. A tooth was pulled when I was about 15 on the lower left side. Not a rear molar but one between two teeth. The remaining teeth shifted so there is virtually no gap.
I later had my wisdom teeth removed as they were impacted. I don’t recall any problems there.
Seems to me that if you do nothing and later want an implant, that you’d need braces or some way to open a gap for the implant?
Ask you dentist what the future procedures mgiht entail.
Like most of us in this thread, IANAD. But something that seems obvious, though perhaps erroneous is that the other teeth will have to work harder, and get slightly more wear and tear. Though probably not enough to matter unless you start losing a lot more teeth for some reason.
Of course, if it’s one of the front teeth, failing to replace it can lead to an irresistible urge to listen to banjo music, and to contemplate sodomizing pudgy strangers.
I’m missing a molar on the lower right side. It’s been gone for a couple of years. Aside from the fact I can stick my tongue in the gap, I never really notice it much. I haven’t measured my teeth to see if anything has shifted, but nothing feels any different.
I had to have a rear upper molar pulled which didn’t create any major problems. Later, when a second one (upper rear) started giving me a problem the dentist advised against pulling it for several reasons, most of which were stated above. The other one was possible digestive problems. Seems people who loose multiple molars don’t chew their food as well and that results in more incompletely digested food in the digestive tract. Leads to nasty stuff like intestinal blockages, constipation etc. He managed to save the tooth so I didn’t have to find out the hard way but it sounded logical to me.
Since the age of about 14, I’ve had a gap in my mouth because of a (hereditary) lack of an adult molar tooth. I’m pleased to say that it hasn’t had any particularily bad influence - ie. no digestive problems or whatever. But it has caused a few problems for the alignment of my teeth; it seems pretty obvious, but the other teeth move in order to fill the gap (kind of like Le Chatelier’s principle). I had to have braces for an extra year because of complications with that.
Anyway, hopefully the implications of a missing tooth won’t be too drastic. Oh, and you can always get an artificial tooth put in
I’ve been a self-employed artist most of my life and I’ve rarely had health/dental insurance, so over the years a few teeth have been pulled (four, I think). None were particularly visible – they were toward the back – and so my appearance wasn’t changed. It’s been more than twenty years since the first two’ve been out and about ten since the last one, and there’ve been no ill effects at all. If I were you, I’d fear not.
Against my dentist’s (Mr-pull-em-all) advice I did not pre-emptively pull my wisdom teeth after highschool graduation. The two bottom ones came in nicely, if not a bit rotated towards the front instead of pure vertical. The one on the left cracked a year or so ago and most of it has broken off. Occasionally it specifically is a bit tender, and it is a darker cream color than my other teeth but you’d have to be in there with a flashlight to see it. I’ve yet to experience any ill effects from that.
I´m not a dentist, but I´ve suffered a stealth-rotting-toooth (there was a fisure in the metal crown and the tooth decayed from the inside), if you´re lucky the nerve will be killed before pressure builds up and it won´t hurt, but the root canals can lead bacteria and food particles down the gum, then it gets icky, I developed an abscess, the infection was so bad that I came down with very high fever, antibiotics helped untill I went to the dentist to had the molar pulled off.
Something I know about…In 1997 I got bashed and I had 7 teeth cracked. Within two days two of the front cracked off leaving me snaggletoothed. The two fartherest molars (not the wisdom the never grew in), cracked. The two eye teeth on the bottom of my mouth were being held in soley by the two fillings in each eye tooth. Two more on the right side were cracked. Because I had no dental insurance I had to get them fixed one by one. I was able to get root canals but one failed and eventually had to be pulled. I am still saving for a bridge.
In the meantime I had only TWO cavitites before this started. To make a long story short because I had to spread this out over four years…My teeth moved, the cracks decayed and all my teeth have fillings.
My dentist did an excellent job considering and you can’t really tell unless you look right at them the teeth are root canal caps. But had I been able to fix this right from the start, none of my good teeth would have shifted and that will happen when you have a cracked tooth or pull it.
If you can at all afford it, get it replaced with a bridge or implant. Even if it means not going on a vacation or something else, cause it’s worth it.
I had a rear molar that cracked, then decayed to below the gum line that did, indeed, become abscessed.
Abcesses happen when an area of tissue becomes infected due to foreign matter or bacteria. Then white blood cells move in to fight the infection. Puss builds up (made up of fluid, white blood cells, dead tissue and bacteria), then tissue grows in around the infection to wall it off and contain it.
It was painful but not spectacularly so - I have a very high pain tolerance.
Tooth abscesses are something that shouldn’t be messed around with, however. They can spread to the bone. If it spreads to other areas of the head and neck (and it can) it can become life-threatening.
So, I had this tooth removed. The only effect that I have noticed is that my wisdom tooth (just starting to erupt when I had the other one removed) is a little farther down that it would have been otherwise, so it doesn’t crowd the back of my mouth, and is useful in chewing. I haven’t noticed any problems at all.
(there was a fisure in the metal crown and the tooth decayed from the inside), if you´re lucky the nerve will be killed before pressure builds up and it won´t hurt, but the root canals can lead bacteria and food particles down the gum, then it gets icky, I developed an abscess, the infection was so bad that I came down with very high fever, antibiotics helped untill I went to the dentist to had the molar pulled off.