Following on from my previous post on reviewing my dental arrangements, I was shocked by my Harley Street checkup.

The dentist I saw showed my pictures of all of my teeth on a TV screen as I lay in the chair. Still photos were taken which showed me great detail of my teeth. The image which sticks in my mind is of a large white filling which has brown patches all around the edges.

This, the dentist tells me, is decay. What! How can I have decay all around this filling and this has never been mentioned to me? Perhaps my current dentist has  not mentioned it to save me money. If this is so, I don’t appreciate it: I want to be involved in the decisions about my own health.

Another factor is the number of large fillings I have. I think this is because of the dental practices when I was a child, which was to ‘drill and fill’ at every opportunity. I find out from my Harley Street dentist that large fillings weaken the remaining ‘cusps’ of the tooth. The pressure of eating then forces them outwards, eventually cracking them off. This is more likely to happen with the white fillings I now prefer as they ‘glue’ the tooth together less effectively than mercury fillings.

Because of these large fillings, I have a number of teeth which will last longer if they are crowned. I did not realise that crowning teeth could be preventive in this way – the teeth will last longer.

The good news for me is: I thought crowning teeth invariably meant root canal work. I am pleased to learn that is not the case. That’s only necessasry with more severely damaged teeth.

I now wait for the proposed treatment plan.

Bad Teeth is a post from: Living To 150

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