By David J. Stewart | June 2013
Photo to right: Fluoride is more toxic than lead. I don't drink tap water. I think minimal exposure by brushing with fluoride is ok, but don't drink it in the water, because then it is ingested.
Pain is normal after having a filling done. I went to a dentist 2 weeks ago and had tooth 31 filled. That's the back tooth on the bottom, my right right side (looking forward). There was previously a dark area along the tooth at the gums. I had no pain whatsoever before the filling. After the filling, when the Novocain wore off, I had the worst stinging pain imaginable when I touched the tip of my finger to the area where the gums meet the tooth. It was like touching the very root (pulp) of the tooth. My gums stung horribly and hurt when drinking water, not just cold, but even room temperature water.
After 7 days nothing had improved, so I went back to see the dentist and he pasted some stuff on my gums. It didn't help at the time. It hurt severely when he prodded on my gums. Wow it hurt! The dentist said to brush with Sensodyne repair toothpaste. The intense pain was ridiculous after having a tooth repaired. I had never experienced anything like this!
Five days later the stinging pain went away completely, but I started feeling more gum soreness type of pain (an aching type of pain in the tooth). The dentist said it was normal because the tooth needed time to heal. He explained that the dentine of the tooth is POROUS, which allows sensitivity to aggravate the root very easily. I learned that cavities often have an associated build-up over the dentine area. When the dentist cleans and repairs the area, the coating is removed, leaving the dentine exposed. It's just a hairline area where the tooth meets the gums, but the stinging is unbearable when it hurts. I didn't think that a person could have such horrible pain AFTER having a filling done.
I had composite material instead of metal, which I've never had problems with. Some people say that composite doesn't last as long and shrinks. Don't but into that! I've had both metal and mostly composite and I've never had a problem with composite. I actually have a loose metal filling that needs to be redone. So I prefer composite, which matches the natural color of the tooth.
It takes about 4-6 WEEKS for a tooth to stop hurting after having a filling done. Consider yourself fortunate of you don't experience tooth pain after a filling, because I sure had lots of pain. OUCH!!!
So don't panic if you've just had a filling done. It's normal to feel sharp, piercing, horrible, stinging pain when touching the area. I've never had it happen before, but there's a first time for everything! I added some salt to water and rinsed my mouth, to help tighten the gums.
I had another tooth filled on the opposite side of my mouth months earlier, where the gums wouldn't seal against the back two teeth for 3 weeks. I rinsed with Listerine a couple times each day and the gums eventually resealed to the tooth. The horrible aching pain took about a month to go away. In this case, the dentist butchered my gums, because he said the cavity went deep and he had to really dig into my gums (AND DID HE EVER!). Even after a month the area was tender when passed over with a toothbrush, which is normal. Eventually the pain diminished and stopped.
If a tooth hurts when drinking cold water, but then stops when the cold stops, that's a good sign. It shows that the nerve is healthy. It should heal fine.
