Metal Mouth Message Board

I just had a bit of more time…and I see a small little dark dot under one of my brackets. It can’t be a cavity, right? It takes 18 months do develop something like that? After 3,5 months I should not have any?
Gee the brace thing makes one to be a bit obsessed …

Lala - I had horrific sensitivity after a filling. It turned out to be two things:

1. My over-zealous scrubbing had eroded the gum (a tiny amount, but enough to expose the root). The only cure for this appears to be time and heaps of fluoride. I had to use a special mouthwash and fluoride gel.

2. I had an "air bubble" in the filling - this is a microscopic thing you can't see. The dentist can check for it by pushing up against your filling, then pulling down. If it feels nasty/weird on the pull-down, it's a bubble. They have to redo part of the filling to fix it. The bubble basically made it weird and horrible to use the tooth for anything crunchy or chewy. I basically spent a year chewing on one side of my mouth before this was diagnosed (they diagnosed the gum erosion almost immediately).

The problem now is that the gum got loads better, but since getting my upper brace on, it has got all bad again. Worse than ever. The problem tooth is the final one of the brace where the wire ends. I think maybe the etching stuff or just having the bracket put on messed it up again. I am hoping that the brace doesn't continue to make it worse

My dentist (who I consider one of the best in Dallas) recommends the same thing that slywy stated in her post - go in for a cleaning every 3 months instead of every 6.

My dental insurance only covers 2 per year, so the extra 2 are out of pocket. It is well worth it, expecially since I have the lingual braces and cannot see the brackets as easily as ya'll can.

After I got my braces off, I went to get my teeth cleaned and my dentist said I need 2 fillings. I was stunned.

I had brushed my teeth 3 times a day and flossed everynight (although not in the area where I got my cavaties).

My teeth weren't even sensitive until he told me I needed 2 fillings. I believe he said I need one 1 surface and one 2 surface filling. It's going to be pretty expensive and I haven't even booked my apppointment yet.

jenns91civic wrote:Right. I have one teeny tiny cavity (I think anyway, I can't afford to go to the dentist..ugh!) on a molar that was banded, but the band came loose and I didn't go have it fixed (duhhh). I also have a few tiny demineralization spots that no one can see but me, even if I point them out, but I had braces on for 6 years and still wasn't very obsessive about my dental care. Don't worry.

You had them for 6 years? I'm at four years and going for another ortho visit tomorrow.

Cissa wrote:You had them for 6 years? I'm at four years and going for another ortho visit tomorrow.

Wow - 4 years... that would drive me insane. I'm at 2 and 1/2 and am itching to be done!!!

i was worried about the same thing with my molar bands but my ortho said that the cement they use to keep them on stores flouride...so when you brush, it stores and then slow-releases flouride to keep those teeth especially healthy.

i'm totally scared that my teeth aren't clean enough, but i seriously do 4 or 5 X as much now than i did before (in terms of cleaning). when i go for my first adjustment, i figure the ortho will tell me if i'm not cleaning well enough. and then luckily i'm going to the dentist in march.

hey, I got inumerous cavities after I got my braces removed. I was carefull with them during the treatment but apparently not enough, but since I was 12 and still I bit irresponsable maybe part of it was my fault! Take very good care of them and you'll see that everything will work out fine! Brush, both with the big and the small brush's, use Oral B or any good brand of desifectant and do it be4 bed time. Warn the dentist if there's any type of cavitie or pain coming! That should be enough to at least avoid cavities!
Good luck
Joe

Chris wrote:Yep, its possible to be sensitive to cold/hot after fillings. I was for months.
Sensodyne works good.

The problem comes if it hurts when you bite down, then you need to be checked for root canal issues. If the cavity was very deep.

Uuups.... My molar hurts a lot when I bite down, I'm not so sure is it because I have been wearing braces for 4 days only... still, the left one does not hurt that much... The pain is different, this is more of a shooting pain and on the other ones is kind of uncomfortable pressure...
Even when the orto was putting them, the pain on the right molar was more intense than on the left side.
Now I'm freaking out that my dentist did not see the cavity cause it was between the teeth the and not on the chewing surface. The molar has fillings already and i guess that makes it even easier to get another cavity.
But doesn't root canal problems show on x-ray? I guess he shoud have spotted it than....
Wouldn't it be embarassing to make them take it off to see that there isn't any? On the other hand,a year and a half with cavity under bands would be a disaster....

I guess I'll wait few days and see what happens, if the pain continues I'll go and share my concerns with the docs....

I'm 100% sure that I'll be having lot of cavities after taking braces off cause despite good oral hygene my check-ups at the dentist's always ended up with a filling or two.... Very frustrating!!!!
Now i'll be going for cleanings every 3-4 months....

Mia, is your molar in a band? Because my molars had pain issues as well with braces sometimes.. especially when I got elastics on them. But I had no cavities........ so, don't worry too much.

Yeah,it's banded,sorry didn't make that clear...
The pain just seems to be way too intense whenever I bite on it...
...not like on the other side...

Before braces: 25 years without cavities.

Braced for roughly 2.5 years.

Now in retainers (since yesterday afternoon): still no cavities.

Just keep up your oral hygiene habits, the cement had flouride in it to prevent cavities between your teeth and the brackets/bands.

Well I took reasonably good care of my teeth when I had my braces on, I just got them off 4/4/06>But, on my dentist appointment last week I asked the hygentist to remove the stuff on my back molars where my bands were that the assisatant at my orthodontist said they would remove, she told me i The tooth was decalcifieda and that a cavity was trying to form there. So now for 6 months I have to use flouride gell to help prevent the cavity and me tooth back to normal. IBTW if this tooth forms a cavity it would be my first ever in the nearly 14 years of my life.

I just got my braces removed a month and a half ago. I had it for 2 years. I took extra good care of it. Cleaning every 3 months instead of 6, brush, floss & wax. Just yesterday, my dentist found a cavity which was formed under my molar band (lower last molar). it was in a gap where food could have been squeezed into the gum. Its so deep that it might be in the root. I have to make a decision if I want to get periodontic surgery, a root canal or have it extracted. So upset. Could be since I knew this had a big gap, I kept brushing with those little brushes for the gaps (interdentals i think) and that must have pushed some food in deeper. So, my advice is to brush first with a normal toothbrush, then floss, then waterpick. Good luck.

Yes, it was under the molar band, at the gumline in between the last & second to the last molar. My dentist feels partly to blame since she always did the cleaning and that she didnt notice that spot. I wish she'd shoulder the bill for the treatment for the cavity. Thanks for your reply, still crossing my fingers.