thumper & gumball - Dental Health Message Board

vikgee · 09-07-2005, 11:38 PM

i had a loose bridge & my regular dentist was out of town.....i was sent to someone who used a thumper & then a gumball on me to remove the bridge, so that it could be reinserted with temporary adhesive, hopefully it will last til my family dentist returns. has anyone had a bad experience with what this professional called a 'thumper'??? it was a stainless steel torture hammer of some kind that didn't work to remove the bridge, so next he tried the 'gumball', a wad of heated gooeyness that when cooled in your mouth did extract the bridge, but then wouldn't let go of the tooth opposite & getting it loose may have damaged the natural tooth it was stuck to......???? will never let someone use these methods again & i'm suffering from jaw pain & tooth pain one day later & wondering what to do besides anti-inflammatory. are these tools one of last resort or have i just been missing all the fun???
thanks for any info ..........

Christai77 · 09-08-2005, 05:40 AM

Vik man, (comment removed ) are you having pain now? I think you said that you are having pain afterwards.

anyway this guy is using laymans terms. the thumper is a pneumatic air jack with a little hook designed to pop of crowns. if your bridge was that loose it should have just come off with fingers. if it wasn't that loose you probably should have just left it alone.

the gooey stuff is what you surmised as wax.

i have never heard of anyone having permanent damage from either of these as they aren't extremely traumatic if used correctly, especially the wax. normally people are numbed up though when the thumper is used.

it is possible that if your bridge was loose, bacteria could have gotten underneath a crown and that's what's causing the problem.