I am 4 months pregnant and gradually getting minor toothaches every other day, so something is to be done rather soon. Before wasting my time and money on going to just any dentist, maybe there are some good recommendations to share?
Many thanks!
P.S. Here is an interesting article, which mentions Dr. Engel from Basel, but I was too blond to find a further trace of him anywhere on the Internet.
'dentist, basel' reveals
For me, tooth ache, along with swollen legs, trouble going to the toilet, putting on 25-30kg, generally feeling like crap, all go into the "grin and remember that it is temporary" category...
google teeth and pregnancy, but dont believe everything you read, because remember, any half-wit can build a webpage.
Here is something though:
My husband did this many years ago, he felt it would improve his health issues at the time.
It is an intensive process and not without other health implications/risks.
For a start, here is a wikipedia link to browse through, to give you the basics.
Your toothaches are very likely due to the fact that during pregnancy, everything inside tends to be more "squidgy", by that I mean your joints are rendered more flexible/loose, to allow the baby to grow in the pelvis region and allow the passage for birth to have some give, for the baby to travel through.
Unfortunately, that includes tooth sockets as well.
Maybe try a warm salt water mouth wash.
I would also suggest oil pulling in this instance.
Some may say it's a load of old hooey, but I personally find it to be very beneficial, for a variety of reasons. It can be a bit of a fag though, I can only say, the difference I notice in between doing it and not, are quite significant to me.
All the best for your pregnancy.
My husband did this many years ago, he felt it would improve his health issues at the time.
Did it? Did he felt better??
Edit: I think psycologically, he felt better for having had it done...
Besides that, pregnancy is just about the worst time to have amalgam fillings removed. Removing amalgam floods the body with mercury, no matter how careful the dentist is, and no matter what kind of allegedly efficient precaution measures are taken. So far, chelation therapy and other highly praised therapies have totally failed any serious research like double-blind tests. They work as long as you believe in them -- you know, all the stuff Prof. Placebo wrote about already decades ago.
Yes, mercury is poisonous and can be pretty mean, but metallic mercury, especially in the form of an alloy like amalgam, is more than a thousand times less toxic than, for instance, organically bound mercury from fish. One average can of tuna provides your organism with a long-term mercury deposit that corresponds to the mercury you absorb from 100 large amalgam fillings in 50 years. No human mouth has room for more than, say, 20 large amalgam fillings.
There is no doubt that the removal of amalgam fillings can make all sorts of symptoms go away. However, that does not mean anything as to the dangers caused by the material proper. I have healed many patients with symptoms like those in the OP's article, not by removing amalgam fillings, though, but by balancing the functional harmony between the masticatory function of the teeth, the muscles and the jaw joints (a.k.a. TMJ = Temporo-Mandibular Joints). Replacing a number of amalgam fillings in one series of sessions automatically improves said harmony, and lo and behold, you fell much better. Conclusion: Amalgam was the culprit. Tempting but scientifically very shaky.
On the other side, I saw many patients who spent a fortune on amalgam replacement without the slightest effect -- at best; quite a few of them had much bigger problems after the procedure.
Yes, pregnancy can cause all sorts of weird symptoms, also in the mouth, but please leave your fillings alone, brush and floss your teeth despite bleeding and the like, and don't believe everything you are told about pregnancy and teeth. "Every child costs you a tooth" -- my posterior. I've seen patients through at least 500 pregnancies, but I've never seen a single tooth lost due to pregnancy, only due to neglect during pregnancy. Yet the Internet is full of "helpful" info on the topic.
I wish you all the best for your pregnancy and a lot of joy with the "outcome."
However she was very much against just having the procedure done with all the amalgam fillings removed and replaced as the trauma it could cause could enable some amalgam to enter the bloodstream.
When I need a filling, if it is an old amalgam one I will get it replaced then.
On the other hand, are you sure that you have amalgam fillings ?
If you are having tooth pain with pregnancy, I'd recommend a 'clean and polish'...and others have said, take care of your teeth and gums...
My dentist (who was Dr. Antic in Basel back when I was PG - great guy, very considerate and very helpful, up to date with all the latest stuff and happy to treat pregnant women in an appropriate way medication wise) told me that it's essential to take care of your teeth when you are pregnant, women are more susceptible to gum disease and often suffer more from toothache than others when pregnant. There are other ways to tell what's wrong with your teeth than X-rays.
I lost a tooth and had 2 fillings when I was pregnant due to a massive infection of my gum, there was no way I could wait for that.
Just, the removal of almalgam fillings while pregnant ( and even when not), is problematic, to say the least.
Actually, one dental x-ray (regular one, not panoramic or the like) gives the body (including the baby) about as much radiation as an old-school color TV (the bulky kind with the vacuum tube screen) at a distance of 8 ft during three minutes. So, during you could have 180 dental x-rays instead of the Lord Of The Rings Trilogy. Ever heard of doctors warning against watching TV when expecting a baby?
(So much crap on Internet, but also - so much warmth thanks to people like you!)
Just returned from a dentist's office - nothing wrong with the teeth or gums, 2 crowns look excellent. Was advised to leave the 3 amalgam fillings in peace.
I don't want to go much into details about why I decided to see if mercury or other metals in my mouth could be the scapegoat for a number of "romantic" (read - physiologically rather unpleasant) symptoms of pregnancy. But just a few - heavy migraines, sinusitis (both like never before in my lifetime), vomiting up to 4 times a day, actually losing weight compared to 6 months ago, feeling cold and feverish almost nonregarding the amount of clothes on, exhausted up to a point I can't work, etc.
Fun part - a Notfall visit to hospital for one night, where the checking was thorough, but the treatment - only paracetamol and NaCl for rinsing the nose (because - you are pregnant!!!). A year ago I was fit and fine, people giving me minus 5 years of my true age (no smoking, not much wine, etc.).
I guess I simply don't want to accept pregnancy as an illness. I want to enjoy it, too. So, I will continue my search to get the immune system functioning again, thank you again for all your support and advices!
Abrasion of the natural tooth structures and restorations like crowns and fillings gradually changes the way the teeth interact with the jaw joints and the muscles. And, of course, the joints slowly change their shape too. Even dental repair measures may contribute to this very slow loss of the correct way of masticatory function. It's an utterly complicated process. I guess 1000 pages would not suffice to cover the basics.
Usually the affected person does not even realize that something is wrong, because the changes took years, very often even decades to occur. You don't perceive a change of one thousandth of a millimeter per month, but it adds up.
The result is a whole host of symptoms, among them facial pain, muscle tension, inability to concentrate, ear noise, headache, dizziness, neck pain, constant tiredness, bad sleep, you name it. In other words: It's the same list as all the symptoms amalgam is blamed for.
The funny thing is, those symptoms occur at exactly the same rate in persons that never had amalgam fillings. A Swedish study in the early 1990s even showed that the none-amalgam group had slightly more of those symptoms than the amalgam group.
Now, as I mentioned above, when a dentist removes all amalgam fillings and carefully replaces them (please note the word, "carefully!), the natural consequence is a huge improvement of the function, because all that wear and tear, a.k.a abrasion, attrition and few other fancy terms, get's removed too. The natural balance between the teeth and the other structures of the masticatory system gets reinstalled, and the patient feels much better, and that even apart from placebo effect.
So far, so good, but in most cases the same effect can also be achieved without removing any amalgam fillings, just by correcting the way the upper and lower teeth interact with one another and with the joints and muscles. That is normally done by milling / grinding tiny amounts of hard material (natural and / or articial) where it interferes with the harmonic paths of movement while biting or chewing on food.
Equally important is the correction of areas that provoke so called occlusal parafunctions, which means exertion of force on the teeth and joints that have nothing to do with normal function, such as bruxism (gnashing of teeth -- very frequent, and most of the patients have no idea they are doing it!), excessive pressure of the tongue, lips or cheeks on the teeth and many other "bad habits" that normally go unnoticed.
I've seen patients that had suffered of daily headache or other ailments for decades, had visited dozens of doctors to no avail and had no idea that such occlusal interferences were the most likely reason of their suffering. Some of them needed fairly long and careful examination and planning, while others actually can be read like a book at first glance.
The treatment proper usually is simple, consisting, as said above, of minute corrections. Sometimes twenty minutes suffice to remove the interferences, sometimes substantially more work is needed, but it is far less invasive than removal of any fillings. The success rate, however, is exactly the same.
Pregnancy can cause swelling of the mucous membranes not only below the waistline but also in the mouth and sometimes even in the nasal cavity. The latter can provoke frontal sinusitis (causing heavy headache) as well as maxillary sinusitis (causing toothache). Both than cause chills, fever, even full-blown shivering fits and general nausea.
Needless to say that pregnancy generally has a bad reputation in the barfing field anyway.
I'm also fairly sure that I was given a lead apron to wear, and they did the minimum to ascertain the problem and treat it to stop the pain. I went back after the baby was born for more complex (root canal therapy) work...
And I can say, categorically, that toothache is worse than childbirth...
Some friends of mine volunteer each year to go to remote areas of China to give dental clinics...after my 3-4 days of toothache, I feel sorry for people who wait a year, or a lifetime, for dental work!
Oh, and I wasn't quite 'honest' with my dentist, when he wondered how on earth I had managed to crack one of my back molars in half... watch out for those pregnancy cravings - chewing ice through two pregnancies was not very kind to my teeth