Lost a filling or chipped a tooth: what to do before your visit

The shortest version: rinse your mouth with warm water, keep the fragment, do not chew on that side, and book the earliest appointment. Below — in detail: when it really is urgent, what you can cover the tooth with until your visit, and what you definitely should not do.

The first ten minutes

• Rinse your mouth with warm water — to clear small fragments. Cold water can cause sharp pain if the dentine is exposed.
• Keep the fragment. Sometimes a chipped piece can be bonded back on — the simplest and most aesthetic restoration there is. Put it in a clean container with milk or saline, not in a tissue.
• Do not chew on that side. A weakened wall can chip further, and then a crown will be needed instead of a restoration.
• Avoid hot, cold and sweet — those are exactly what cause sharp pain on exposed dentine.
• Look at the site in a mirror. If you can see a pink or red dot deep in the break and blood is welling up, the pulp is exposed and you need an appointment today.

If a filling has come out

Fillings do not fall out for no reason. The most common causes are secondary decay under the filling (the tissue beneath it broke down and the support was lost), excessive load from bruxism, a large old restoration that has run out of service life, or a crack in the tooth wall.

This matters, because it determines what happens next: not «put the filling back», but work out why it did not hold. Otherwise the new one will fail the same way.

What to cover it with until your visit

Temporary filling material from a pharmacy is a sensible solution for a few days. Pack it into the cavity, remove the excess, let it set. Brush the tooth thoroughly and rinse after meals: food debris is especially keen on an open cavity.

If a tooth has chipped

The approach depends on how deep the chip goes, and you can tell the variants apart yourself.

A chip exposing the pulp

A pink or red dot is visible in the break, blood is welling up, the pain is severe. This is a same-day appointment. The sooner the pulp is covered, the better the chance of keeping the tooth vital — otherwise root canal treatment will be needed, from UAH 6,600.

A tooth cracked or broken below the gum

The trickiest variant: there may be almost nothing to see from outside, yet the tooth hurts sharply on biting. This needs an X-ray and an examination under a microscope to work out where the crack runs and whether the tooth can be saved. Sometimes the answer is disappointing — but it is better to know at once than to treat a tooth that will not hold.

If a tooth has been knocked out completely

This is the only situation on the list where minutes count, so we deal with it separately.

• Pick the tooth up by the crown, not by the root.
• Do not scrub it with a brush and do not scrape anything off the root — its surface carries living cells on which reattachment depends. If the tooth is dirty, rinse it gently with milk or saline.
• Place it in milk or saline. Not water — water destroys the cells. Another option is inside the injured person's cheek, if they are conscious and an adult.
• Get to a dentist immediately. Realistic chances of reattachment run to roughly the first hour.

A baby tooth is not put back — that can damage the bud of the permanent tooth. But a child should still be seen by a dentist after any injury.

What not to do

• Warm the cheek. Heat speeds up inflammation and can lead to swelling.
• Put a painkiller tablet on the gum. It does not relieve pain, but it does give a chemical burn to the mucosa.
• File the sharp edge down yourself. Enamel comes off along with the edge.
• Pull at a loose fragment. You can break off more than has already chipped.
• Wait for it to «heal on its own». The hard tissues of a tooth do not regenerate — unlike the rest of the body's tissues.

More on what to do at home when it hurts, and what to avoid — in the article on acute toothache.

What we will do at the clinic

• Examination and X-ray — we assess the depth of the defect, the state of the pulp and whether there is a root crack.
• A restoration under the microscope — from UAH 2,500. In most cases the tooth is restored in a single visit, layer by layer, with the shade matched.
• Ceramic inlay — from UAH 6,900, if the defect is large but the walls have survived. Holds its shape better than a large filling.
• Root canal treatment — from UAH 6,600, if the pulp could not be saved.

The general-dentistry side and the full list are on the page restorative dentistry. Complex cases involving cracks are handled under a microscope — see the page microscope treatment.

We work seven days a week: Mon–Sat 9:00–19:00, Sunday 10:00–18:00. If the situation is urgent, message the bot describing what happened — that is the fastest way for us to find a slot.

Frequently asked questions