I'm also waiting for the restaurant that cooked this meal to call back. I think they should pay for any damage done tonight, and I'll give them a chance to do so informally before a solicitors letter is sent their way.

I don't know if it was a fork, I merely happened to be using one at the moment of trauma. Obviously I won't say that to them because it might cause them to pass the buck. I've had two Valium to relax.

The plated remainder of the meal has been placed in the freezer, in a Libertys carrier bag to isolate it for the time being, so it can be preserved and used as evidence.

I meant to update this last week. I see from all the concern shown, you were all on tenterhooks as to what was happening.

Last Monday an emergency appointment was offered, and seized. The chip was definite, very small and in one corner, but action required. We decided a millimeters rounding reshape of all six upper front teeth was the way forward.

There and then I was injected and the work completed in no time at all while we listened to Fado music. It's done wonders for my confidence. I wish I'd had it done years ago. It's like looking at a whole new younger me when I smile.

Still heard nothing from the restaurant! Photographs of the offending food, and photocopies of all receipts and the dental X-Ray were included with an informal handwritten letter, and not a word has been forthcoming so far.

One of my crowns has come loose. I'll have to re-secure it with PVA or something, because the dentists have told me they aren't seeing anyone till July at the earliest.

Please don't do that. Coincidentally, there was a dental feature on This Morning. The advice was to ring round because sooner rather than later, you will absolutely find a dentist that is operating - or one that will tell you exactly who is. A decent point was made that even pre all this, dental surgeries are sterile and the staff wear PPE anyway as standard. That is definitely true now I think of it - it's surgical masks and eye shields, and I'm so used to it I had to think specifically.

You only get one set of adult teeth. Don't put superglue on them or carry out your own treatments. You wouldn't perform heart surgery on yourself.

But when I rang the dentist they told me to buy a temporary crown fixing kit. It's basically the same thing.

A decent enough indication of the need to run fast in the opposite direction, permanently, to a new dentist who doesn't find basic professional competence to be optional.

Imagine a doctor saying "there is no evidence that will work for such a purpose, and in fact it might even be harmful, but if you've decided that you want it anyway I'll give it to you". You have to go as far as Washington DC to find such a person. A dentist who takes a similar line is a dentist to run from. Medical professionals who recommend their patients risk DIY mistakes that might need to be fixed on top of the original problem are people in the wrong job.

See also accountants that land their clients in jail, teachers that sleep with their pupils, buyers who are card carrying communists, farmers who live in Manhattan, wine tasters in AA, blind artists, deaf musicians, anorexic chefs, and lawyers who recommend a quick skim of the law before representing yourself.

I've temporarily secured it with some denture fixative that I bought last time this happened.

That, at least, won't need to be damagingly scraped off the enamel the way glue would, or seal itself into the pulp the crown protects. Probably the best way forward until an appointment with a reputable practitioner.

Fangirl Three wrote:

I'll have to re-secure it with PVA

Liquid nails!

I remember when I had to have some teeth pulled in order to get my braces in. What I was unaware of at the time was that you would get tiny bits of sharp bone that would rub, poke, irritate and then eventually fall out.

I enjoyed it.

The denture fixative works great. It lasts up to 12 hours, and can even survive a meal.

I had the four teeth removal thing pre brace too, in preparation for it. Nothing fell out randomly afterwards? It just bled horribly into cotton wool for the evening, four weeks in a row. One from each side, top and bottom. The brace was on from 11 years old, for eighteen months, so thankfully my teens were brace free. I recall the first weekend of it being driven mad by the pain and discomfort - it was done on a Friday morning.

When I was told I needed one, I cried. I asked the dentist what would happen if I didn't get one and he said 'Do you know who Cilla Black and Ken Dodd are? Well, you'll look like their child'. I cried and cried and cried. I was the first one at my school to have one, the only one in fact - nobody else had one on until secondary school. Apparently in dental terms, I was what they call 'advanced', but in a mouth if anything smaller than average.

As an advantage of this I had all my wisdom teeth by 14, and thanks to the brace and previous removal of four side teeth, the room for them. At the start of the week I didn't have any, and by the end of the week, I had them all. A bit of unexplained gum pressure on the Thursday afternoon on one side, and that was that. I had been worried due to hearing all kinds of horror stories about wisdom teeth/removal/drinking soup through straws.

What a genuinely nasty thing to say.

If Wendi has upset you, take it up with her.

That's a really unkind sentiment, unnecessary, undeserved by anyone as far as I can see. I was not expecting to read that.

Yes. It is unfair to take it out on Tanya.

It is my teeth that should be the target of your vitriol.