Great. You’ve broken a tooth. Now for sure, the dentist is going to tell you you have to have that tooth pulled. Well, I’m here to tell you that’s not the case in all situations, and there’s a lot of reasons why. Just because a tooth is broken, we can still save it.
Hi, I’m Dr. Brett Langston, and this is Oakley. I’m a prosthodontist and owner at Dental Implant and Aesthetic Specialist here in Brookhaven, Georgia, and we are here to help you watch your mouth.
Options for Saving a Broken Tooth
So, you’ve broken a tooth. In addition to the pain and the discomfort, there’s always the concern of, “My goodness, now I’m going to be going around for months without this tooth. I’m going to go to the dentist. They’re going to have to pull it out. It’s the worst thing in the world.” Well, I’m here to tell you we’ve actually got a lot of ways that we can save a tooth depending on how broken it is. We have a lot of different treatment options.
If the break is above the gumline and there’s still plenty of healthy tooth left, a lot of times we can just protect the tooth with a crown. Basically, what a crown is going to do is go around the broken part and kind of protect the tooth. It’s going to be able to restore the missing space, and you can chew and function.
Same-Day Crowns
We also have the ability now to do crowns in one appointment. So, if it’s a back tooth that’s broken, you come in and see us, we take an X-ray, we look at everything, and if the tooth itself is healthy, a lot of times that same day we can prepare the tooth and make a permanent ceramic tooth-colored crown that we can bond over the top of that tooth. And for all intents and purposes, it’s going to look and feel just like that tooth was whole again.
More Involved Damage: Root Canals
Another option we have, if the tooth is more broken down and that fracture involves the nerve, which is basically the inside of the tooth, a lot of times we can do a root canal. This basically means we go on the inside of the tooth, take the unhealthy tissue out, put a small filling on the internal, build the tooth back up, and then we put a crown over the top of it.
That’s not a one-day process. Usually, that takes a lab because we have a lot of parts and pieces we have to make permanent. But we’ll always put you in a temporary crown, so at least when you leave the office, it’ll look like you have that tooth.
Prioritizing Natural Teeth Over Implants
Even though implants are a great treatment option we have, there are times where that’s not the right solution. Here in our office, our philosophy is we always want to save teeth if we can. We are going to do everything we can to save teeth because even though we’ve got all these great options for replacements, we’re never going to be as good as your natural teeth.
So, if the tooth has just a small chip in it, a lot of times we can just do a small tooth-colored filling. But if it’s more involved, it might need a crown—or even more involved, it might need a root canal and a buildup and then a crown on top.
When Do We Extract a Tooth?
A lot of times the question becomes, “Do we pull this tooth or do we try and save it?” Generally, that’s kind of a multifactorial answer. One of the main reasons we try and keep a tooth in order to prevent having to extract it a lot of times is medical complications.
More and more patients are on bone-growing medicines, whether something like Fosamax or any kind of IV medication to help you regrow bone, which is great for that purpose. But a lot of times that causes issues with extractions or any kind of more involved dental procedures. So, it’s really important if you’re taking those medications that you talk to us and let us sit down and consult with your physician to try and figure out what the right solution is.
If we anticipate that going through the extraction—having the tooth taken out—is going to be an issue for your healing, a lot of times we’ll opt to try and save that tooth even if that’s not the best option for the tooth. A lot of times that’s what we’ll need to do because the healing from having your tooth pulled could be problematic.
Impact of Bone-Growing Medications
In a healthy mouth, when you pull the tooth, the bone fills in and smooths over and remodels in a healthy way. If you have a history of taking these bone-growing medications, it will impede that process. So, a lot of times it can lead to infection, it can lead to bone loss, it won’t heal properly, and that can open up a whole bunch of other issues down the road. So, in those situations, we definitely want to look at our options, and if the option is on the table to restore the tooth, that’s the way we’re going to go.
Why We Need Your Medical History
It’s for this reason that you absolutely have to share with your dental team all the medications you’re on. I know we have a lot of patients that come in and say, “Why do you want to know my medical history? Why do you want to know what medications I’m taking?” Because a lot of medications you take actually will have an impact on your dental care.
There’s actually a lot of medications that cause dry mouth. There’s a lot of medications that cause other issues in the mouth, and so that can have an impact on your dental treatment. So, every new patient and every existing patient, when we come in, we always review medical history. We always want an updated list of the medications you’re on because even though it may not seem like it has an impact, there’s a good chance that the more medications you’re on, it will have an impact on our dental treatment.
In dentistry, the more we know going into what our treatment’s going to be, the better we can make sure we have success. So, the more informed we are about the medications you’re on, it’s going to help us create a better treatment plan. We’re never going to tell you to stop, we’re never going to try and override your physician, but it’s always good for us to know exactly what’s going on so we can always make a plan that works best with your medical history.
Final Thoughts
If you find yourself in a situation where you’ve got a broken tooth, whether you’ve bitten on something funny, whether one of your kids knocked you in the face and you have a missing tooth, come see us. We’ll sit down, we’ll talk through your options. A lot of times, we’re actually going to come up with an option where you don’t have to lose the tooth. But if that’s the case, we’ll have a plan for that too. So come see us. Oakley and I are really excited to see you.
I’m Dr. Brett Langston, and I’m here to help you. Watch your mouth.
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