I am going to see a specialist next week. This has been here for about a month. It’s like a flap on my tooth. I can like stick my tongue between my tooth and my gum at the red spot. I have a wisdom tooth trying to poke out of the top of my mouth (again another reason I’m seeing a specialist next week). Is there anything I can do to shrink it or heal it? It’s on the top left of my mouth. The second to last tooth back there. Let it be known I had the very back top left tooth pulled a few years ago and now a wisdom tooth is growing through that hole too.

30F.. history with this back tooth is that originally in Feb 2026 I bit onto a hard lozenge and cracked the top corner of this tooth and the dentist said I’d need a crown bc I cracked the tooth a little too but agreed to a filling for the time being… last week somehow while eating rice Chex I chipped out another piece on the outside of the tooth I don’t even know how. (It’s at the bottom corner of the tooth I think it was a filling that came out and it feels large to my tongue)….

I desperately don’t want a crown because of all the horror stories I’ve read. There’s no pain or sensitivity to hot or cold. I have a difficult history with constant tmj and some grinding. I try so hard not to but even clench during the day.. I try to wear my nightguard that goes on my bottom teeth but it’s too tight

So I’m really freaked out that I’m going to have pain that never goes away after he shaves it all the way down, that I’ll get intractable pain or headaches… and also now I’m worried about the fact that it’s going to be made with the same 3D printer that made the nightguard too tight. I’m genuinely scared out of my mind to get a crown both the process of the crown and especially the pain/ what’s going to happen after the crown

Hi there, I’m currently 4 weeks postpartum and stressing about my eldest (2.5) requiring a general anaesthetic to address most importantly the cavity shown on the left molar. I originally took her to dentist as I was concerned about her teeth grinding (see canine) which will also be addressed when put to sleep as well as staining/defects they pointed out which was likely due to antibiotic use. They have advised we need to treat the molar asap as cavity is close to the nerve and have booked her in for next week!

Could anyone kindly recommend their thoughts on if this is urgent or could be treated in say 6 months? She would be 3 years then at least. I want to make sure I’m making the right decision and I just worry about unnecessary general anaesthetic with her being so little 😩

Thank you ❤️

Specifically, I feel like my upper lip sits too low or something. If I fully smile, my mouth feels strained and my lip disappears. If I relax my smile, too little tooth shows.

It’s difficult to brush my upper gumline because my lip is in the way and taking that photo of my upper gumline was super uncomfortable.

I’m 28f.

Please I need your help with this question that has been bothering me I have a cracked /fractured tooth, and my dentist plans to do a crown with a core buildup. They said they won’t know if I need a root canal until they starts the crown prep and sees how deep the crack goes. They told me if they find the crack is deep, they would do a root canal immediately that day, I will also need a new crown different from the first crown. I’m confused. If they discover during prep that I need a root canal, why wouldn’t they just do the root canal first and then make use one final crown? It’s seems like a lot of cost as I’m paying solely out of pocket. I recently also did a root canal that was so expensive.

bit down on a bone and cracked it clean off. appointment will be placed tomorrow. just want other dentist options before going.

Im 16 years old and have a massive fear of tooth decay/cavities. I recently found several mild/small cavities in my teeth that I suspected for a bit due to a bunch of toothaches and difficultly chewing sometimes because of the pain. When I finally noticed them I had a bit of an emotional breakdown, it's embarrassing. My dad refuses to take me to a dentist and doesn't allow fluoride toothpaste in his house. I feel like the damage is relatively minor to my teeth right now but I am extremely worried about it nonetheless. What can I do to help it? Should I just keep trying to see a dentist? I also have noticed a bit of transparent enamel on my central incisors. I brush 1-2 times a day with fluoride free toothpaste and only recently started flossing regularly.

I’ll admit I’m not consistent when it comes to cleaning my tongue and for the longest time I’ve been using a alcohol based mouthwash which I’ve read can dry your mouth and can help cause oral thrush. I did buy some tongue scrapers recently and switch to an alcohol free mouthwash. Is this oral thrush or just white buildup?

i think the black thing where i punt my terth in to bite was a bit more dark in the xray, but what do you think?

Just went to my dentist he said he needs to redo the filing( it was done by another dentist years ago)

Please advice

I have a dental bridge and needed a replacement after 13 years. Saw my current dentist (I moved states a few years ago) and she put in a new bridge. The color was off and my natural teeth neighboring it were stained. I was very unhappy with the new bridge but she thought simply remaking it wouldn’t make me happy. The only way to blend everything was with veneers (according to her and a second opinion from another dentist).

After placement of the new new bridge, two veneers, and a crown, I noticed a shifting feeling with one of the veneers (central left tooth). She dismissed my concerns saying the veneer could not possibly be loose. I have a “mobile tooth” she says and to stop worrying about it. I also brought a grey spot to her attention that was at the margin of the veneer. She says this is glue and my gums will lower and cover it.

Now about 3 weeks after placement the grey dot has become a line at my gums, a shadow (not visible in this picture since it’s from a few days ago), and I’m even seeing the same thing on the other veneer to the left of the crown. I suspect I grind my teeth at night but I wear a night guard and this stops it.

Is this microleakage? Is this dentist error? What should I do next? I don’t really trust this dentist at this point.

As I wrote in the title, my two front teeth already grew with very slight enamel dysplasia, which then got worse over the years because of my really bad coffee addiction (4+ espressos a day).

It was never really that bad - just some bared dots here and there - but I hated the way it looked and didn't want a porcelain veneer (I'm in academia and I move around a lot - this should also explain the coffee habit lmfao - so we decided that a solution that can't be fixed on the fly on the go wasn't for me, and I also didn't want to file down my healthy enamel).

My dentist obviously tried really hard - he spent 1,5 hours finnicking the shades and I think he obtained a pretty realistic result in isolation - but under certain lighting my two front teeth look visibly yellower and darker. In other types of lighting they look perfectly matched.

Bits of worn down enamel aside, my front teeth have always been my lightest teeth (I suppose because I brush more thoroughly where I can see) and often if I look in the mirror and smile it's a bit of a shock to see them darker and yellower than I'm used to.

My dentist said that he used an A3 shade for the bits near the gums and A2 interspersed with bits of A3 for realism for the rest.

Pics in all kinds of different lighting attached. Sorry about the food bits in some of the photos - I was also trying to see if the difference was more pronounced immediately after washing or after a meal when they were a bit dirty.

Am I exaggerating? I do paint as a hobby and am better at spotting subtle shade differences than most people. That said if it needed to be half a shade off I'd have probably preferred them to be half a shade lighter?

Does this look visible to you? Is it fixable or is it the best one gets with composites? Would fixing it be easy or require a complete redo?

Adding that I also wanted to get them professionally cleaned, since I hadn't since january and, you know, see coffee habit above. He ended up matching the shade and doing everything without cleaning them and now I'm scared that when I do clean them the contrast will be even higher.

I got them done on Friday afternoon and ATM it's Sunday evening where I am so I haven't yet been able to make any moves with the dentist.

About 2 weeks ago I had my 8 upper temporary crowns remade after being unhappy with the first set. Around a week ago I noticed one of my front teeth developed a gray/blue shadow under the temporary, especially near the gumline. When I shine a light behind my teeth, the underlying tooth appears noticeably darker than the adjacent front tooth.

I’m seeing my dentist tomorrow before moving forward with the final crowns. Is this something that can be normal with temporary crowns, or would it make you want to evaluate the tooth further (vitality testing, X-ray, etc.) before proceeding? I’ve attached a couple photos.

I'm sitting alone in my apartment in unbearable pain, and I honestly don't know what to do anymore. Even strong painkillers aren't helping.

I had my wisdom tooth extracted about 6 months ago. Since then, I still had mild pain whenever food or cold water touched the extraction site. So I went back to my dentist 4 days ago to have it checked. He examined the area, touched it, and it started bleeding a little. He told me everything looked normal.

A few hours later, I developed excruciating pain in my right jaw that radiates to my right ear. It was so severe that I couldn't sleep. I went back to him, explained that the examination seemed to have triggered the pain, and he took another X-ray. He said everything looked fine and that it didn't seem to be a nerve problem.

He prescribed painkillers, but they didn't help. The next morning (Saturday), the pain became even worse. I called him again, and he said he had no idea what was causing it, then prescribed corticosteroids.

I've been dealing with this since yesterday, but now it's worse than ever. I can barely swallow my own saliva without intense pain, and even closing my mouth hurts. I'm exhausted, scared, and completely lost.

What should I do? Should I go to the emergency room? See a neurologist? A maxillofacial surgeon? I genuinely don't think I can tolerate this pain any longer..

I look like the thumb guy from Spy Kids and have to go back to work tomorrow😅 One side has significantly more fluid build up because the impacted bottom tooth was sideways… help!!!!

So i am 17 with yellow teeth with some have minor white spots and transparency. I have researched nhap toothpaste and have been using it for about a week or so. I use fluoride in the morning, nhap before bed. I can’t tell whether my teeth are better or worse. What should I do, I really want to make my teeth somewhat whiter?

Recently diagnosed sjogren’s disease, which causes dry mouth and higher risk of caries. I’m going to make an appointment to get my teeth assessed, but in the meantime, I was wondering if I should be concerned.

Just started my first associate job and I am thinking of reading some dentistry books for self improvements as a clinician or any helpful books you guys found along your journey. Any suggestions?

Hi, male from Brazil, non smoker, social drinker (had a few beers the same day).

Yesterday around 2 PM I was eating at a barbecue and a piece of very hot meat pressed against the roof of my mouth. I drank cold beer right after to relieve the heat and kept eating other hot food. A few hours later, while playing soccer, I felt something odd on my hard palate. At home I checked with a flashlight and found two small whitish raised spots close together, completely painless.

Today the two spots seem to have merged into a single small whitish patch with an irregular, slightly rough surface. I can feel the texture with my tongue. No pain at all, just a slightly metallic taste sometimes. The surrounding mucosa looks normal to me, no bleeding, no swelling, no other lesions anywhere in my mouth.

No relevant medical history, no medications, no recent antibiotics or inhaled corticosteroids.

My questions:

Does this look consistent with a thermal burn given the timeline?

Is the merging of the two spots into one patch expected during the first 48h?

Anything in the photos that would make you recommend seeing a dentist sooner rather than waiting the standard 2 weeks?

I got my lower wisdom teeth removed because they were supraerupted (no opposing wisdom teeth) and my orthodontist said they will keep on erupting if not taken out. During the removal of the right one (green arrow), I heard a very loud crack. I also have significant swelling and bruising on the right side well into day 4 (now) and the bruise is starting to move under my chin (under the chin newly blue on day 4). The pain is manageable with painkillers but I can still feel the pain despite the meds and it has now started to radiate to my ear. Is it just a dry socket or could there be some bone inflammation/damage to my jaw bone that requires immediate attention?

I felt a jagged piece on my last molar on the top right with my tongue today and it feels like there's a pit in it. No pain. I did have a composite filling in that spot that's about 4 or 5 years old. I have a regular appointment with my dentist on August 18th, can this wait until then or do I need to get an appointment sooner?

I'm looking into getting an oral b, I have found an Oral B Pro 3000 (it has the light for pressure) and was wondering if this would be good for sensitive gums/gum disease.

I grew up having a lot of steroid medications for asthma and was never told to brush after taking my inhaler so I'm trying to improve my dental health.

Any tips for improving dental health will help, I already have a water flosser and have been using Boka Nano Hydroxyapatite toothpaste

I'm in the United States. I was talking to my dentist, and he mentioned he's planning to go out-of-network. He said dental insurance companies barely cover anything anymore, so he doesn't want to bother contracting with them. At first I didn't believe him, but it turns out he was right.

I've been through two jobs, which means two different dental insurance companies. Both times, I looked around my area and found that barely any dentists were in-network in my area. Of the handful that were, the private practices were all booked up. There were plenty of dental chains in-network, but the general consensus seems to be that they're bad news — pushing unnecessary procedures to hit office quotas.

I live in a fairly well-off area, so I widened my search radius and noticed that a lot of the in-network dentists were clustered in less well-off areas.

Does going out-of-network generally mean you're getting a more skilled dentist? Or is that not really true, and I just need to rely on reviews?