Tooth Fairy In The Making

Dental Girl Gets A Filling

My upper anterior teeth has some mottling. As a result, when I was about 12 years old my dentist decided to put some composite over the mottled areas to mask the color difference.

9 years down the road and that resin composite has come to bite me in the back.

I didn't think it was anything at first - my demonstrator said it was probably arrested caries that I saw at the mesial of my 11. I believed her.

Then I developed a toothache and decided to go to my dentist. After all, the resin composite wasn't polished properly so even if it was nothing, at least I would just get it polished down a little.

The dentist had a look, removed the resin composite and there it was - secondary caries. Very obvious secondary caries - even a person who wasn't a a future dentist could tell you that. All under a huge chunk of resin composite (dentist informed me it was way too thick and over way too much of the surface and likely wasn't polished at all). Which was why it was undetected for so long.

Is it me or is a filling on an anterior tooth more depressing than one at the back?

Note to self:
1. Seal margins properly.
2. Seal margins properly.
3. Polish restorations properly and religiously.
4. Never go back to childhood dentist. The same dentist who managed to fit a crown on my friend's 26 only to have it fall off 2 weeks later.

Labels: Dental School

posted by Dental Girl at 2:40 PM