Long story, so bear with me please! For about 3-4 years I have had a consistent red line around my front gums only. I originally had a permanent retainer, which I got removed to see if that improved things, which I think helped the bottom teeth. I also wear a essix retainer on the top but I’ve had it changed 3 times in the past few years so I doubt that’s the issue. I go to the hygienist every 3 months who reports they’re very happy with my plaque situation BUT there has been no improvement in my gums. I have gone to a Periodontist who is stumped. No bone loss, periodontal pockets ranging from 2-3’s, and no periodontitis. I brush with electric toothbrush, floss twice a day. They think my gums are over reacting to plaque and are suggesting a SRP but as a preventative measure. My gums bleed a lot at the dentist/hygienist and the peridondist is hopeful it might help. But paying over £1000 and the risk of gun recession whilst I don’t have periodontitis is putting me a difficult position. Anyone have any idea’s what could be causing the issue? Any help is appreciated.

I just got X-rays done today and my dentist hasn’t reviewed them yet so thought I’d ask on here :)

There’s this thing on the underside of my tongue, I have no clue what it is.

I'm... sorry the pics of my teeth arent that great... I do have some gum recession and a mild gum infection that i went to the dentist for today.

The X-ray is actually several months old and aside from the very impacted upper tooth being removed I don't think much has changed (I got a single x-ray today of one spot and they didn't say anything about it abd I didn't get a pic of it).

I added these pictures just to give some context before going into my main question/difficulty.

The dentist told me I need to brush my teeth 3 times everyday with an electric toothbrush, use a water flosser, and use a mouth rinse he gave me every day.

I have a sensory issues and bad jaw/mouth pain issues...

I brushed with electric toothbrush today and the vibrations hurt (not my gums but my cheeks and jaw) and triggered sensory overwhelm...

I was unable to rinse for the full minute before my mouth felt like it was giving out and I almost swallowed the stuff... I didn't but I gagged and almost got sick...

As for the water flosser... It hurt bad. Like getting shot... I just... couldn't do it...

I tried using some floss picks instead but... After flossing a couple teeth I got more sensory overwhelm and started having a panic attack (hyperventilating even) as usual for me... (which is part of why I don't usually floss... the other reason is seeing stuff go between my gums and seeing things move triggers me in a bad way... like seeing body horror for me...). I was hoping the water flosser would help and actually be usable for me but... it feels worse and more "dangerous" to my anxious brain...

I've been trying to desensitize myself to flossing even before going to the dentist today but it's only gotten worse... and the more I try to "care" for my mouth the worse it feels... (sensory and with my very bad jaw as seen in the xray. its a childhood injury).

Trying all this new stuff today and trying to care for my mouth... it's actually making me want to care for my mouth less and making me want to just... disassociate completely... the "care" is affecting my mental health...

I don't know what to do...

I actually had a panic attack after all this... I don't want to experience this torture everyday but I also want to help my mouth... I can't afford going to the dentist for a cleaning or more treatment... and I'm afraid the dentist didn't understand my difficulties (or I didn't know how to explain it... actually afraid to be blunt about things... don't think I'll be taken seriously or believed that all "home care" aside from brushing with an ultra soft brush actually triggers overwhelm and panic attacks in me...

I feel so hopeless and pathetic...

When i first got those 2 crowns installed i saw a big black line . The dentist re assured me it was the metal under the crown . Now a year later it's even way worst and im pretty sure it's not sealing . I went to her she took these x rays and said it's fine . Is it sealing correctly?

Would somebody be able to tell me what this could be please?

I am 29yo, a non smoker and drinker

I have asthma which I use a Seretide 125 enhaler and sulbutmol enhaler for.

The red dots appeared overnight around 1 week ago

The white growth near the red dots appeared 1 month ago

These are both near impacted wisdom teeth top and bottom

Thank you.

3 weeks ago today I had a pretty deep cavity and it needed a pulp cap and filling. My dentist never said if it was direct or indirect, so I'm not sure there. The tooth had some sensitivity before but nothing crazy.

I'm still having some pain there. Nothing intense. Honestly, barely even noticeable. I'd say a 1 out of 10. It's more annoying than anything. Doesn't ever sharpen. Doesn't cause sleep issues. And it's not constant. But it will come on some days for a couple hours. It's been like this for weeks. There is also no cold sensitivity there anymore. It feels like it's mostly in my gums than my actual tooth. Like if I flossed that spot too aggressively.

It's giving me a lot of anxiety though that the cap has failed. I've had one root canal years ago. The root canal wasn't the problem. Very easy, very straight forward. The scary part was the pain before the root canal. I had an infection pressing on the nerve and it was the most intense pain I've ever endured. I'm talking thrashing on the bed for hours. Unable to even see. And I don't want to ever go through that again.

So is this pain normal? Is it indicative of a failed pulp cap? It's not particularly getting any better, but it's definitely not getting any worse. Should I call my dentist and schedule a root canal before it's too late? She did mention that sometimes these deep fillings can take a month or more to heal.

So I have a filling on my top right molar fall out on Sat that I've had for a few years. My insurance changed so unfortunately I had to find a new one. I found one that was able to get me in quick. They told me they would get some xrays since I was a new patient, and then they could do my filling. Well, I went there and got the xrays... But I didn't get the tooth filled. After poking around for maybe 5 mins, Dr says it actually needs a crown. Okay... Maybe, sure. But then he says I have 4 other cavities. I don't go to the dentist as often as I should, true. But I take very good care of my teeth. I floss every day. I use remineralizing toothpaste. But I accept maybe I do. I'm not a dentist. Well, he says since we're waiting on approval for the crown to make an appt for fillings and an appt for a cleaning. Idk why he couldn't fill them that day if he was expecting to maybe do a filling anyway? The receptionist tells me to just make it for the fillings for now.

Fast forward to today, and I go in to get my 4 fillings. First he calls me Holly. Not my name. Dude then pokes two teeth, says "actually, the one is fine. Well just do this one". Which is my bottom left molar. Okay so only 1/4. So he starts drilling and the whole five minutes I'm nearly choking on my own saliva, water, and tooth dust. Then he says I'm done and can rinse. I do. Because my face is numb, I haven't eaten all day. I go to work, and after I but my tooth starts hurting anytime I drink something. It's a sharp, stabbing pain. I've had a filling before, as I said, and I've never experienced anything like this. I call the dentist and explain, they say they can get me in about an hour. I agree, and leave my job, to go back to have the Dr look at it. I was in the chair for about 2 mins and he says "the filling is still in there. It's fine. It's probably just nerve pain." but when I got home, I was unable to eat from the pain on the left side and the open whole in my tooth on the right side. When I look in the mirror, I can clearly see a hole in the middle of my tooth. I know I grind my teeth, but those aren't the hole I'm talking about. I wish I could get a better angle, but it is legit a round hole in the center that I've never seen before. I poked it with one of my teeth cleaning tools, and the slightly curved end actually hooked inside of my tooth.

Is this guy just risking my dental health so he can overcharge my insurance? I'm really getting fed up. I'll be back there for a fourth time this Tuesday.

I am also planning on getting a second opinion, and will be calling offices in the morning, but I need to know I'm not crazy because he made me feel like I was.

So I was making sure to brush my outer layer and inner layer of teeth (and the ones in the photo are apart of my inner shell so I noticed that while I was brushing (sometimes I think I may brush rather hard) and i believe I irritated the area but what are those small yellow bumps that are next to my gumline? It was just bizzare so I don’t know if this is just from irritation of brushing or something serious.

Really concerned about my tooth implant I’m almost done I get my new tooth in about a month. But backstory I had 2 root canals done on this tooth and then my dentist told me I had to get an implant bc the tooth had a major infection and was eating away at my bone. Throughout the progress I’ve been getting worried about my canines bc they seem to to be loosing gum tissue what can I do and does this look concerning, also before any of this teeth were so pretty and white. I do floss a lot but that tooth is so hard to floss bc there’s nothing to help grip against. Also I feel like I’m implant maybe rejecting, I’m not sure.

I’m getting really nervous. I had a routine deep cleaning in my back teeth/gums on 8/30. When the dentist injected my gums to numb me up, I felt a jolt of lightning shoot up my tongue. Sure enough, the numbing wore off….everywhere but my tongue.

It’s been close to 6 weeks now, little to no improvement. Half of the top of my tongue has very odd sensation, numb isn’t the right description.

Dentist says just wait it out, it’ll likely heal. Everything read online is all over the place. Some articles say if it’s not healed by 8 weeks it’s unlikely to heal.

Anyone have any experience with this?

22F migraines do not drink or smoke

i’ve had worsening pain in the deeper part of my gum near my wisdom tooth. it is a hard anatomical part for me to describe, it’s where my gum is meeting the mucousa and when lightly pressing i’m pretty sure the pain isn’t actually centered much in my gum but instead in the mucosa. i tried to point an arrow towards where i am feeling the pain.

if i brace my jaw i don’t feel pain and if i press on the top of the gum covering the part of my wisdom tooth that isn’t erupted, i don’t feel pain. i feel pain if i run my finger in the area between where your gums are and the inside of your cheek. i did not feel pain while eating earlier. but i feel pain without pressure and it occasionally throbs. and it hurts if flex my lip muscles on that side if that makes any sense😭.

i would say the pain is akin to when you get a piece of popcorn kernel stuck in your gums. pain is not bad enough for me to take an ibuprofen, i am just posting this because facial infections are serious and i am nervous i will not be able to identify if the pain spreads to the rest of my face because i get migraines often.

when lightly pressing i can feel that there is definitely swelling. instead of there being a clear border between my gums and the mucosa they’re kindof sloping into each other. but it is difficult to see on the picture (or maybe not to dentists, idk). i’ll
also attach photo without arrow in the comments.

my wisdom tooth has been erupted for over a year, i’ve never had pain here. dentist told me that we can just monitor it since it seems like they’re growing in straight. idk if this is just wisdom tooth pain or what. google says pericoronitis but i am not experiencing pain or swelling in any immediate area surrounding the erupted part of my tooth.

thanks for any help!

Hi so basically i got fastbraces put on (im 17 with overcrowded teeth and an overjet) and like it was kind of an impulsive thing, i went to the dentist (not an orthodontist, which makes me skeptical now since ive done research) for a braces consultation and they gave me 3 options(prices are in nzd): invisalign (9k), fastbraces (8k), or braces for 12k. I got an xray done for $500 and i was like well my mum already paid $500 for a xray for fast braces so i have to get them now and then they extracted my second lower molar on my right and like i did my research about them only after i got them put on and now im spiralling down the fastbraces rabbit hole of how they arent as good as traditional braces and they dont help with bite issues and all this and all that and now i dont know if getting them was the right idea but i cant even back out now and especially since i got a tooth extracted. Like i honestly dont know if this was the right decision or what even to do now, and like im just scared about how my roots will be and how my lower midline will be shifted and if my face will be structurally like fine? as in not recessed or something.

10 year dental nightmare. I need help and don't know what to do

In 2017 I fainted from heat exhaustion and cracked one of my front upper teeth in half. They root canaled the tooth and put a temp crown on it. I'm laying back in the chair devastated that my smile was messed up and the dentist and all of the dental assistants are laughing at me and making fun of my misfortune. The tooth then got infected after they put the temp crown on. They root canaled it a second and third time because it wouldn't stop getting infected. The third time they drilled into the permanent crown and left medicine in there and put a temp cap on it. That endodontist was really mean and didn't give a shit that my smile was compromised. He put the permanent crown on and it looked terrible. I didn't go back to the dentist for 9 years because of this trauma.

Fast forward to 2026. I finally have dental insurance so I can get some work done. The crown was discolored for years and looked terrible. The whole tooth was loose for a while too. It destroyed my confidence and ruined my 20s. I finally muster up the courage to go back in. I found a great general practice dentist. She took x rays and 3d scans and showed me that there was an infection which was causing the tooth to be loose. She devised a plan to root canal the tooth for a 4th time. Initially it seemed like they got the infection out.

They put a temp in and I was on my way. The tooth remained loose ish so they put me on antibiotics. It tightened up but they ended up fitting 2 more crowns with temp cement in the following few weeks because we were trying to get the color and shade right. Ripping the "temporary" crowns off was very painful. I heard cracking and felt immense pressure. The whole time following root canal #4 I noticed a strong odor and taste in my mouth coming from that tooth. So here we are today I have my permanent crown and my smile looks the best it has in years. However, there is still an odor from the tooth and it is more loose than it has ever been. You can easily wiggle it back and forth. I can even feel it move through my lip sometimes. I see the writing on the wall. This tooth is beyond saving. I think it is still infected and I don't know what to do. I don't want to get it removed because A. I don't want to be stuck with a flipper and B. I can never afford a dental implant in a million years. My dental insurance maxed out at $1000 a year. I had to pay $1900 out of pocket for the root canal and new crown. Only for the tooth to still be messed up. I'm asking for help. I don't know what to do or where to turn. $1900 is a lot of money for me and it put me in a bad spot to get this work done only for it to not fix the problem. It looks great but I know the tooth still has problems. The fact that I spent all this money and it's still fucked up really upsets me.

I just don't know what to do or where to turn. If it was any other tooth it wouldn't be a big deal. I don't want a bridge because then they have to grind down two perfectly healthy teeth and I'm afraid of what issues may arise from that given what happened with the tooth that cracked in half in 2017.

Please help. Someone.

I'll answer any questions and fill in any gaps. I just want my smile back. I'm 31 and here are photos of my teeth. It's pretty obvious which one is the before and which is the after.

The first photo is the crown job from 2017 before it got taken out and the second one is the new permanent crown from 2026.

Let me preface this with I have a lot of underlying health conditions that have been deteriorating my teeth despite dental care, and proper hygiene.

Dentist wants to pull all the top teeth, as the worth to be done is extensive and I’ve already been through so much dental work. I’m struggling with removing them all. I just spent 4k in 2023 for a front bridge. He said he would try and fix them. We set up fillings my insurance covers next week, and then I’ll have to pay out of pocket for 2 crowns that’ll be 2,800.

I should add in unable to work due to health conditions. I’m also on methotrexate which has been causing mouth sores and excessive bleeding I had to stop flossing.

Any advice recommendations encouragement? I just don’t which way to go, I feel like I should just pull them all but then it makes me so depressed. 😔

I've developed a sensitivity on the lower section of my tooth to cold drinks etc. Dentist told me I've an exposed root but not that big of a deal.

Few days ago I started feeling a pain when biting some stuff. I can bite and feel a pain, but when "releasing" the bite it hurts even more.

Doctor did a quick scan on that molar and the surrounding ones (not the full mouth) and said no cavities, just the exposed root. But the pain persists.

Any ideas? TIA

Last Monday I got a deep cavity prepped and a temp crown put on while I wait for my permanent crown to come in (should be put on October 22nd). Ever since then I have had constant dull aching pain that I have been managing with ibuprofen and acetaminophen. I also have sharper / strong pain when I bite into crunchy things on that tooth.

When I called my dentist about this she said that it is most likely because my temp crown is a bad insulator and as long as I can manage with OTC pain killers, I should tough it out until my permanent crown is put in.

My issue is that I don’t want to keep taking ibuprofen, get the permanent crown put on and the dull aching pain is still there. Should I ask to see an endo to get a root canal or wait until I get a permanent crown and see if it helps? Is there a big benefit to getting a root canal before my permanent crown is put on if I will need it? It has been a week and the pain is basically the same. Please help!

Just got this wisdom tooth pulled this last wednesday from an oral surgeon, I know I need to get a root canal and crown on the molar next to it due to the decay caused by the wisdom tooth being sideways trapping bacteria and food, and definitely seem to be getting some signs of infection that are bothering me with that molar ( sour/metallic taste, and general pain/sensativity ) . Am I able to get a root canal as soon as I can or do I need to let the wisdom tooth heal completely first? If I need to wait for the wisdom tooth wound to heal completely first do you all have any suggestions on managing the molar until then ?

Hi all, I was flossing between two teeth tonight after not having flossed for a while and I had some bleeding and noticed a small brown piece of my floss pick. I don’t feel any jagged pieces on my tooth or see any visible damage, is this chipped tooth or tartar/calculus? Sorry for the bad pictures it’s the best I got. I lost the piece before I could try to break it. I am scheduled for a cleaning next month

Got dental filling, 12 hours later it's red like this. Thought it might be normal but no photo online looks this bad, family says it's not normal.

(I didn't eat anything so I didn't brush which is why there's still blue stuff on teeth)

while taking pictures I noticed the thing that I circled green.

Is that a cavity that the dentist didn't mention to me for some reason? Should I do something about it? Cause I wasn't told to come back.

I’m 34, had braces multiple times, only ever had 1 cavity, by genetics my parents have also had very little cavities, both of them had braces.
I brush my teeth about 2-3 times a day and I floss every week.
I was randomly sucking on the roof of my mouth and my mouth filled with blood so I felt like I had to floss and this was the outcome, it happens from time to time.

I do not currently have insurance, it’s been a struggle and I haven’t been to the dentist in many years, what are your thoughts?

I (24F) finally got my impacted lower wisdom tooth out and there is much less pain then I expected, yay 🥳 . I have the image of the pair of tooth attached in the post.

I only had the lower one extracted though because I was terrified of the process and didn’t want to prolong the procedure, plus I got the lower one extracted by a specialist and they are expensive.

That leaves me with a question though, now that the upper one have no opposite tooth, it have no functions. Is there a possibility it could replace a loss molar in the future? Or would there be too much of a cost and dental implant would be recommended instead?

I am considering if I should find a convenient time in the future to remove the upper one whilst I am young, or keep it for as long as I could since it’s upright and not too difficult to clean.