Had any dental fillings lately? Not crowns; fillings.

It seems like the fluoride in water is making cavities less common but also you get less as you age, I’ve heard. Many of the problems – crowns, etc. – come from old fillings that have worn out or weakened the tooth.

Yes and it is coming out so I will have to go back. As for the other dental work you mention, yes, plenty of that too!

I had a filling last year; first one since I was in high school (and second one overall). I’m a little disappointed since I have friends who never floss and they’ve never had a filling in their life. But apparently weak enamel runs in my family.

As we age we generally don’t face the same kinds of dental problems that children still face. (My parents never had dental fillings after I became old enough to notice such things, but they had had terrible dental problems earlier in life, and each of them had bridges to replace various missing teeth.) We also don’t – as a rule – eat and drink the way children and teenagers do.

As we age, more of our problems are related to receding gums exposing the roots of teeth, and decay occurring beneath the gum line, or older dental fillings wearing (or even falling out) and the resulting cavity being too large to re-fill. That’s why extractions, root canals and implants or crowns are more common among older people – who can still afford to pay for dental treatment.

Ihad one filling last week as a matter of fact. that was the first time in more years than I can remember.

I’ve never had any dental work thank god it’s too expensive.

My oldest friend went to a new dentist recently and she had an X-ray machine that showed decay beneath her crowns so they’ll be replaced at over a grand each. I don’t know what would have happened had she not seen this new dentist. No other dentist she had seen mentioned decay. She admitted to me she was not a regular flosser.

If that’s a new dentist, I would recommend that she see another dentist for a second opinion. “Decay beneath the crown” generally indicates that there was some flaw in the original crown. Either the original decay was not thoroughly cleaned out, or the crown itself was not installed in a sterile manner, or there was a bad seal between the crown and the base tooth.

All of those are certainly possible; I’m not saying that the new dentist is building his practice by tearing down someone else’s… but that would be my initial assumption. Unless your friend has already complained of dental problems as a result of the crowns (plural? multiple crowns? even less likely to have all been installed badly, I think), then I would be looking for confirmation that what the new dentist has seen is a real problem.

@CWOTUS In my most unprofessional opinion all crowns are subject to underlying decay regardless of how well they were placed. You have hundreds of hours of chewing food on and around crowns. At their base, by the gum line, if there is the slightest regression of gum due to gingivitis or whatever it is so easy for a minuscule particle of food to get in there. I believe the only way to prevent decay under crowns is to brush, floss and waterpik after each and every meal and snack.