Broken tooth - what can dentist do?

[TheSpottedZebra]

So, to cap off a bit of a shit weekend, I broke my tooth this morning. It's a molar, the back one, but not the wisdom tooth as that's long gone. An inside corner bit seems to have come off, right to the gum line. I think it might have had a filling, 20 years ago ish but otherwise fine. I go to the dentist regularly with no issues.

What's left is very jagged and seems to be cut right down to gum line. It's not bleeding, and isn't crazily painful, only a bit jangly. I guess I'll call tomorrow and hope for a quick appointment, but what will the dentist likely do? I've never had this before!

Nb the tooth chunk is in milk - can they stick it back on? Should I put it in fridge, or not?

Exact same thing happened to me in summer. It was the only tooth with a filling (from 70's when I was little) Half the tooth cracked off leaving a jagged edge.

I left it until, in October, I woke up in agony. Got an emergency appointment and dentist killed my nerves and put in temporary filling. Then went back a week later for another, better, temporary filling and to make molds for a crown. 500 euros! I now have to go back AGAIN to get the crown fixed in place.

It was the same tooth as you, I just wanted it pulled out TBH.

What a faff for a tooth you can't even see!

I've got an open broken tooth. DM was phobic about dentists so I ended up with a large filling as a teenager when it crumbled unexpectedly. Then there was a large filling, and I'm now on the second one. A few years ago, some of the side broke off, so the next stage is a crown as it is more filling than original tooth. As long as it hardly bothers me, I'm happy to keep procrastinating on it..

AFAIC dentists love crowns because they're expensive and often fall out and lead to more expensive work. Cynical, moi?

I totally agree Juells

A good crown shouldn't fall out.
They should also only suggest a crown if there is too much tooth structure missing to hold a filling. If a crown fails multiple times then it may be a crown case.
But because that involves taking more healthy tooth structure away it should only be done is clinically necessary.

I had this happen a couple of months ago. They removed what was left of my horrible metal filling in it and rebuilt the tooth using white filling material. Cost of a filling (albeit a white one) so not massively expensive.