Cavity question?

Question

I beleive I have a cavity on the bottom left side of my mouth. I experiance tenderness every now & then & latley I have had a numbing feeling on the left side of my face on around the jaw bone area. I also have all of my wisdom teeth. I am 32. What happends if a cavity is left untreated? With out insurance it gets pretty pricy.........

Answer 1

If you don't treat a cavity, which is a hole in your tooth, your tooth will rot. Then you will have to get a root canal. Which is WAY more expensive AND painful then a fill in for a cavity.
Find a small dentist near your home, a small practice. They can be cheaper.

Answer 2

pricey is relative.

if you get the most expensive filling in the US it shouldn't be more than $200.

if the decay gets to the nerve, then you can either extract (about $160 or so) or to save the tooth get a root canal, post, crown all of which will set y ou back over two grand!

the numbing feeling is a bit odd...
that would lead me to beleive that the wisdom tooth back there is doing something nutty w/ the nerve that runs beneath it. i'd have to see an xray to know more.

you shoudl probably get the full work up w/ xrays , exam, whatever, since it sounds like it's been a while since you've been to the doc.
however, you can ask for just a problem focused exam, which is less expensive and just one xray to look at that tooth area.

Answer 3

An untreated cavity just gets worse, until you risk losing the tooth. It's best to treat it now, while it's small, rather than later, which will be MUCH more expensive (like root-canal expensive - several hundred dollars plus the cost of a crown as opposed to the cost of a filling).

Answer 4

I did not take care of my teeth either a a kid no money meant no toothbrush let alone toothpaste. I have paid for that mistake by getting 11 fillings, a crown ontop of a root canel and had to have an extraction done on a tooth my dentist cound not fix I still have not got the artifical tooth installed on my upper right where I need it. I hope you repent of your mistakes before you also getta spend about $6,000.00 on your teeth to get fixed if you do not have medical coverage.

Answer 5

if a cavity is left untreated it will get worse and/or decompose in your mouth. It may be pricy but it would be a lot cheaper to get it treated now than to leave it sit.

Answer 6

Yeah, I know, I don't have dental insurance either. But if you let it go, it will only get more and more expensive to fix as more and more of it rots away. If it's also giving you a numbing feeling there, you could have an abscess. You really don't want to let it get worse.

If there are any teaching hospitals that train dentists, you could see if they take patients for training purposes. It's usually cheaper.

Answer 7

If you don't treat it as soon as possible, the tiny hole could turn into this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Toothdecay12.jpg
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If you get it treated early, it'll be virtually painless, you won't even need the needle. You just feel the drill spinning against your teeth, and if you leave it, it'll get deeper and the drill will have to go in deeper, where it'll eventually become uncomfortable.

Answer 8

CAVITIES ARE FUNNY CREATURES, LIKE THAT PESKY COUSIN YOU CAN'T GET RID OF...
A CAVITY CANNOT BE STOPPED FROM GROWING MORE AND MORE. ULTIMATELY IT WILL ATTACK THE NERVE AND CAUSE EXCRUCIATING PAIN THAT MAY BE SOLVED WITH ONLY 2 OPTIONS, A ROOT CANAL OR EXTRACTION.
THE RELATIVE COST OF A FILLING, COMPARED TO OTHER OPTIONS, IS INEXPENSIVE.

Answer 9

If you live near the border, some of the dentists there also are licensed to practice in the states and their fees drop substantially once you cross the border............same dentist less money.

Answer 10

it will continue to hurt...save up all of the money you can to get it fixed...there is no way to get rid of it once it is there.