Dental Emergencies: What To Do If You Lose A Filling

Losing a filling from a tooth is not uncommon. Even though losing a filling may not be as urgent as some dental emergencies, it is still very important that you make an appointment with your dentist as soon as possible to rectify the issue.

There are several reasons why a filling may break or be lost. Some of these include:

• Active decay under the filling or crown. This softens the underlying tooth and destroys the bond between filling/crown and tooth. Solution: dentist removes decay and places a new filling and/or crown (as long as the underlying tooth is sound).
• Filling material fails (mechanical failure). This usually occurs because it is under too much pressure and cannot bear the chewing or biting forces anymore. Solution: dentist evaluates load that the tooth is under and places appropriate filling or crown. You may need to protect the tooth further with an occlusal splint {add link to page on occlusal splints}.
• Bond between filling/crown and tooth fails (tooth-coloured fillings). Solution- as above.
• Tooth under the filling cracks, chips, breaks and filling falls out along with piece of the tooth. Solution- as above.

If you lose a filling and it is causing you pain, you might need to use analgesics (pain medication) to help keep you comfortable. You can read more about using pain medications here. The main course of action, however, is to contact your dentist as soon as possible.

Corinna Dental Group will always give priority appointments to patients in pain. If emergencies occur on the weekend, current patients of the practice can use Dr Chris’ number.

Here is a link to our Dental Emergencies page:

And an article about lost fillings and crowns from the folk at Colgate.