A couple of weeks ago I had a root canal on an infected premolar, and a
temporary filling until the dentist can fit a crown. I've tried to
avoid chewing on that side, but last night part of the side of the
tooth broke off: the temporary filling is exposed for about 2/3 of the
length of the tooth along the outside down to a couple of millimeters
above the gum-line.

The tooth previously had a large filling when I was a teenager and the
remaining parts of that side were very thin and only supported at the
bottom (the filling ran the whole length of the tooth and out both
ends), so with hindsight I guess it's not entirely suprising that it
came away when it was weakened... or maybe it was cracked before and
that's how the infection got past the filling.

My dentist is going to check it out next week, but is there anything I
could do in the meantime to avoid any further damage that would cause
more problems with fitting a crown (I'm assuming they'd have had to
grind down that area to fit the crown in any case)? Hopefully the roots
aren't cracked, but I don't want the tooth getting infected again if I
can avoid it.

   Mark