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Broken Tooth Case Study
A man name David in his late twenties called us three weeks
ago, reporting that he had bit down on a bone in some chicken and immediately
felt a sharp pain in one of his teeth. Since that time, he had consistently
felt pain anytime he chewed or applied pressure to it with his tongue. He
immediately thought that he may have somehow broken his tooth, but he could not
see a fracture when he looked in the mirror. He did feel something missing at
the base of the tooth, but assumed it was a filling he had gotten as a child
that had simply fallen out. We told David that it was impossible to determine
if the tooth was indeed broken or simply needed refilling. We urged him to come
in immediately for examination so we could determine the best course of action.
Most of the time, a broken tooth not only fractures a
tooth, but actually splits off a part of it. Sometimes people recover these
fragments and can clearly see a piece of the tooth missing in the area where it
initially broke. In other cases such as David’s, a person may not find a tooth
fragment. If the person examines the tooth in the mirror, they may not see
where the crack actually is. However, they certainly feel the pain anytime any
amount of pressure is put on the tooth. Broken teeth are painfully obvious to
human beings, and almost impossible to ignore. The one good thing about this is
most people immediately contact a dentist to stop the pain, which in turn allows
the dentists to act more quickly and possibly save the tooth.
David, however, was an exception to this room. Assuming
that he probably had a missing filling, and seeing no evidence of a broken tooth
in the mirror, he procrastinated calling a professional. It was not until the
pain became increasingly worse that David finally picked up the phone and said
he needed an appointment ASAP. When he arrived at our office, we first pulled
his dental records using our computer. The first thing we noticed is that the
tooth that was hurting him was next to a tooth that had been filled, but it had
never itself been filled. The pain was coming from what had always been a
healthy tooth—thus indicating the likelihood of a crack. Our next step was to
confirm this with an examination with intraoral our camera and high-resolution
monitor. Looking all around the tooth and near the gumline, we indeed found
that part of the bottom inside portion tooth was indeed missing at just such an
angle that David could not see it from a mirror. Even worse, the fragment that
splintered off from the broken tooth had gone into the gumline. It was embedded
so deeply that our only option was to extract the tooth completely.
David was upset with himself at this point. He felt that if he had immediately
acted when he first suspected the tooth was broken that it would have given us
more of a chance of saving it. We reassured him that this was highly unlikely.
When a fracture happens above the gumline, a crown can normally repair the
tooth. This far beneath the gumline, however, negates the ability to cover the
tooth adequately with a crown. David would have needed a new tooth even if he
called us the day that he fractured it
David felt he was too young to get a false tooth over
something as mundane as a chicken bone. We told him we completely empathized
with his feelings, but reassured him at the same time that we could replace the
broken tooth with a dental implant that would look identical to the one we would
extract. After all, we are the Cosmetic Dentistry Center, and maintaining the
vitality of a person’s smile at any age is our specialty and our mission in
patient care.
However, do not assume that just because David’s story
ended well that procrastinating calling a dentist when you think you have a
BROKEN tooth will pay off with the same happy ending. Waiting any longer in his
case could have infected the root and resulted in a severe abscess and certain
root canal. A BROKEN tooth is nothing to dismiss and needs immediate medical
attention. Call our office to schedule an appointment if you feel any sharp
pains when you chew, or any pain whatsoever from even slight pressure on the
tooth.
Cosmetic Dentistry is a
specialized field that requires extensive knowledge and experience to be done
correctly. The Medical Center Dental Group in Houston, Texas brings all of that
and more to the direct benefit of each and every patient we treat. Although we
are located in the world famous Houston Medical Center at Scurlock Towers, we
routinely see dental patients who travel from Austin, San Antonio, Dallas, San
Antonio, Brownsville, El Paso, Fort Worth, Corpus Christi, Beaumont and Midland
Texas to see
Dr. Dale Brant,
Dr. Charles Campbell or Dr. Elizabeth O’Sullivan-Winslow for their cosmetic
denistry services.
Regional Cosmetic Dentistry Area Coverage
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