posted
I recently had a crown put in on a cracked molar. Now I have this weird taste in my mouth -- I can't really describe it well, but it doesn't taste like blood (iron tasting). It's more like a vague medicinal flavor with a hint of bitterness thrown in.
What's worse is I feel like I have bad breath or something which I never had before.
I'm going to call the dentist back today as it has been two weeks with no abatement in this. I thought at first it must be the aftermath of the Novacaine, but that would've lasted at most a few hours or a day.
Weird.
Any thoughts?
By the way, there's no pain associated with this. The tooth isn't throbbing or anything, and I don't detect anything when I floss or rub the gums.
And for all you non-dentists out there, we can just start a pool and see who is closest to the right answer.
NOTE: There's also the possibility that this has nothing to do with the teeth and it's all coincidental. But then, what would be causing it? Some back of the throat thing? I have looked back there as best I can and didn't see anything unusual so far as I know...
Posts: 22497 | Registered: Sep 2000
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posted
my guess is that you have bacterial growth under the crown... that could be causing the bad breath and taste.
Posts: 1892 | Registered: Mar 2002
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posted
It is a metal crown right? Could it be the taste of the metal or something biologic reacting with the metal. If I recall correctly you said it was stainless steel. Does it taste the same as if you kept your spoon in your mouth and sucked on it rather than having polite table manners?
posted
(There are different alloys of Stainless Steels as well as other all other metal types. Some of them have traces of different metals than others. I'm sure they use a standard one for denistry that most people don't have problems with, but there is always going to be SOMEONE sensitive to a particular trace element that requires them to change alloys)
posted
A few months back I had a Root Canal done. I had a strong metallic taste in my mouth. It went away after about two weeks, once the mouth has enough time to do what it does.
Another thing that it could be is an infection. I had a tooth broken at the root playing soccer a few years ago. The tooth just acted like it was sore and I didn't think anything was wrong with it. After about a week my jaw started to swell and I got a constant bad taste in my mouth much like what you're describing. If that's what it winds up being, the remedy isn't that bad. Just an hour in the dentists chair and some pushing and shoving is all. Easy stuff for a dental-patient-pro like myself.
Posts: 1660 | Registered: Jan 2000
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posted
Bacterial growth was my first guess. I'm thinking antibiotics though, not pushing and shoving. I mean if they put the crown on 2 weeks ago and this crud is growing in there, don't they have to drill through the crown and put a plug of antibiotics INSIDE? Ruin a perfectly good crown?
Actually I CAN taste the metallic nature of the crown, but that's no big deal and it's a different thing than this.
This is definitely a weird noxious taste and it seems "volatile" in that it seems to be affecting the breath coming from that quadrant of the mouth.
I've never experienced this before. New dentist. Should I find someone else or is this just bad luck. The tooth WAS cracked so the infection (if it is one) could've started at that point, not from having the crown inserted.
Hmm...
Also, it's possible this could just run it's course, right? But an infection in a moist, warm place like a mouth is probably not going to just go away without treatment, I assume.
Posts: 22497 | Registered: Sep 2000
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posted
I think you're right on your last statement Bob. Infections in the mouth seem to be more excellerated than anywhere else in the body. Hardly ever do you see an infection in the mouth just goes away. I would suggest seeing the dentist as soon as you can, if your tooth was cracked vertically, it might have delivered the bacteria right to the nerve. Which most definitely isn't good.
Posts: 1660 | Registered: Jan 2000
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posted
unfortunately, it seems unlikely that bob will know he has a new heart murmur*
Well, call the dentist and see if they want to schedule you for an appointment?
*i think scottneb's commenting on the possibility of bacterial endocarditis, which may present with a new heart murmur.
Posts: 1892 | Registered: Mar 2002
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I had infected gums for awhile because my wisdom tooth is pushing my other teeth around. I know I should get it out, that's not the point. Anyway- I went to the dentist, sure that I'd have all kinds of scary things and need shots and horse pills. He confirmed that it was just sore, infecteed gums, and told me to rinse & swish around with warm salt water. I did twice and the infection went away.
You could try that first off and see if it doesn't at least help. But I would go to the dentist anyway.
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
You know, there's also a completely benign possibility here. I have a crown on one of my lower front teeth, and some years ago, shortly after I got it, it just popped off (well, I had my fingernail underneath the lip of it and was prying on it, but hey, I was 14!). Anyway, my mouth was immediately filled with a taste not unlike what you're describing. It was just whatever adhesive they'd used to stick the thing down.
A few months ago my wife got a couple of crowns, and she reported a taste like what you're talking about too. Again, it was the adhesive, only this time tiny amounts of it were seeping out--she wasn't trying to pry the thing off.
In both instances there was the feeling of having bad breath, although in her case, at least, it didn't smell bad to me (although it did smell a little bit odd).
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Godric, Root Canals aren't as bad as most people think. I've had two and the only thing that got to me was the amount of time it took to do the procedure. In fact I had one finished yesterday. The ones that I had done were for my cracked tooth that I mentioned before and another that had the nerves coming out virtually in my nasal cavity. So whenever I got a cold that stuffed up that side I wound up with excrutiating pain in that tooth. The Root Canals in both cases were a welcomed remedy. To be honest the only real pain that I went through was after the initial drilling and poking appointent. All that pulling and tugging on that tooth will aggravate the tendons that hold the tooth in. On the 1-10 scale, the pain would be in the neighborhood of 2 at the most so don't worry about that.
What do you know so far about the procedure?
Posts: 1660 | Registered: Jan 2000
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Not terribly much -- the dentist gave me a pamphlet which gave a basic explanation of the procedure. Actually, I'm much more concerned about the cost than the pain since I don't have any form of dental insurance.
Posts: 1295 | Registered: Jan 2003
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Do you really need the tooth? Most people have too many teeth to begin with, which is why they end up having their wisdom teeth pulled. Bob seemed to need all of his teeth, but I thought I'd make sure you'd considered the much cheaper alternative of tooth extraction. Posts: 171 | Registered: Jun 2001
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Okay, the dentist said this is normal for stainless steel crowns because there's always a slight gap between the crown and the underlying toot that won't be there when we do a ceramic custom-made crown.
The stainless steel ones are "generic" and come in various sizes, but aren't an exact fit to anyone.
So...what you have to do is use a lot of floss and don't suck on it all the time--hard to stop! Really hard to stop!!!
And I'd like to keep my tooth, if at all possible, but I am giving some thought to just having it pulled -- we'll see how strapped I am for cash by the middle of next month.
(We should get a smilie like this with a missing, or maybe gold tooth)
Posts: 1295 | Registered: Jan 2003
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posted
A ligament makes more sense than a tendon, but I didn't know that there was a ligament there either. I love learning new stuff!
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