What you need to know after you have a tooth filled in Allen

INSTRUCTIONS TO FOLLOW IN Allen

When you leave the office, your tooth will usually be numb. If your tooth is numb, do not eat anything that you have to chew. Once the numbness wears off and you can chew, there are a few things that you need to look for.

TOOTH IS SORE AFTER FILLING

If you are chewing and the tooth gets sore when you chew, or if a tooth feels like it hits first with nothing between your teeth, please report this. When you are numb, the filling is leveled with the rest of your teeth, but sometimes, because you are numb, you don’t bite as hard as you normally do and this can leave the filling slightly higher than the surrounding teeth. This will put all of your biting pressure on this one tooth leaving it sore. You will need to come into the office and have your filling adjusted.

TOOTH IS SENSITIVE AFTER FILLING

Once the numbness wears off, the tooth that was filled may be sensitive to cold. This is normal. Take notice of the degree of sensitivity and how long it lasts after the cold is removed. As long as the sensitivity goes away when the cold goes away, this is normal healing and can last weeks or months, but will get better. Give it time.

TOOTH IS PAINFUL AFTER FILLING

If it is extremely sensitive, or if the cold sensitivity lingers and turns into a toothache, you should report it. If the tooth is sensitive to heat, this is not normal and also should be reported. Occasionally, despite all efforts of being conservative, the tooth decay is just too close to the pulp in the middle of the tooth. The tooth becomes inflamed to a point that is not natural healing and will end in the toot pulp dying and the tooth becomes infected it is not treated.