Filings fell out, no longer covered under dental.

agoaj

A short time ago one of my fillings fell out of my mouth, and I'm not covered under any dental insurance until January. I know it's a bit of a stretch but does anyone know if these things have some kind of warranty?

see317

You should ask your dentist since this sounds like something that could vary from office to office. I don't know if they'll warranty their work or not. If not though, they should be able to help you out, possibly set up an installment plan or something along those lines. Be sure to be up front about not having insurance.

EggyToast

Were they placed within the last year? If so, you *may* have some recourse. Not a warranty, but simply good service. If they're older, say a few years, then no, there's no warranty. Fillings often need to be replaced. Usually, on your 6 month or annual cleaning, your dentist will notice the filling is getting worn and suggest replacing it. At that point, they remove the loose one before it comes out, and refills the tooth.

Otherwise, fillings aren't that expensive. I just had some work done where they removed a part of a filling and filled the space, and the total amount submitted to insurance was $114.

You can also not worry about it until January, or you can simply not eat any chewy foods until then. More realistically, since it's highly unlikely you'll be able to have it filled for free, you can get in the habit of brushing the tooth vigorously after each meal.

Corvus

As Eggy says, fillings aren't that expensive. Dont let the cost put you off having it fixed. Because if something awful happened and it turned into needing a crown or a root canal, those are expensive.

Also, check out your insurance, I don't know if this is likely, but maybe it will be possible to claim some portion of things that happened before it kicked in?

Falx

Buy some anti-septic mouthwash too, to help tide you over. It'll get inside the little cavity where the brush can't get to. If you use it in little doses (enough to douse the area of the tooth only and not your entire mouth) it should last until January.

Try not to eat sweet things or drink stuff with lots of sugar.

tsmvengy

Good advice on that last post, but please don't ignore the advice to go back to the dentist that you got the filling from. They may fix it for free, or if not, they can at least tell you how much it will be so you can make an informed decision - it shouldn't cost that much. But don't just ignore it, because the alternatives if it gets worse are bad and very expensive.

corcorigan

You can buy temporary filling stuff and fill something on your own. I don't know whether you should use it for 3 or so months until you get seen properly though.

Creepy

I know a guy at work who kept putting in those "temporary" fillings from the drug store. He did it for months and months ( I want to say a year but it might have only been 9 mos or so) until he finally HAD to see the dentist.

Personally, I wouldn't do this but if you really can't afford to go til next year I guess it's an option. A bad one, but an option.