Any dentists about? Question about chipped tooth and repair

[Squirrelfruitandnutkin]

Ds (7yo) chipped his front adult tooth last week.
The dentist did a temporary repair with some white filler/ putty type stuff. She's asked him to come back this week for a permanent repair.

My question is - how do they remove the temporary repair? I've tried ringing the surgery to ask but the receptionist just said the dentist would explain the procedure as she went. My concern is that Ds will be more relaxed if he knows that he'll need injection/ drill/ whatever and we've talked about it in advance.

Can anyone advise?

Thanks!

Bump for the evening 😄

My Dentist DH said it'll have to be drilled off the the tooth prepped for the permanent filling.HTH.

If it's anything like dds temporary repair it will have fallen off by then....

Oh heck - drilling! 😬
Will he need an injection too to numb the area?

Bloomin DS - he's had those adult teeth for a year max if that! I could have cried! 🙁

Gin - that's what I thought after the first attempt didn't last long enough for us to walk back to the car! This one seems fairly secure for now....

Yes, probably drilled off. You don't always need anaesthetic for this though, it depends what was done for the temporary repair and how big the fracture is.

We are pretty good at explaining to children though so it might be better to be incredibly nonchalant about the whole thing and let the dentist do the talking? Unless you're confident you won't put DS off (sometimes parents do this with the best of intentions) in which case go ahead.

I always show children what the drill will feel like before we start by spraying the water into their hand or using a fingernail etc. Not that I see patients very often these days bliss

It would be great if you could update us on what happens as fractured teeth in children are a fairly common problem on here!

And you've already started with the negativity!

Thanks for the advice!
Ds is a bit of a worrier so can be good to talk through what will happen. But as I'm not 100% I think I'll do as you suggest and leave it to the dentist.

I do like our dentist but she is a very matter of fact lady who gets straight to the point. No softly softly/ bedside manner.

Just don't pass on the negativity!

It is what it is, the alternative is a chipped tooth. Sometimes matter of fact works well, by all means talk to him about what feeling numb feels like and how the treatment is for his benefit etc but try not to pass on your concerns about injections and drilling. By and large, our (adults) perception of injections etc is far worse than the reality, we just build them up in our heads and it would be a shame to pass this on for no good reason.

MrsM - I'm not too bad at sounding light and breezy and inwardly freaking out! 😂
If all else fails I'm fairly sure he can be bribed!

And the update.

He did brilliantly! 😄
The dentist said she would need to water drill (?) off the temp replacement and Ds could have an injection but that would hurt more. So she suggested that he tried without. He was super relaxed to start with, playing with the ducky tube so that helped a lot. He didn't enjoy the drilling but they got that over with quickly. Then they rebuilt the tooth with some composite resin stuff and set it with a blue light. Whole thing was done in about 15 minutes.
Dentist said he could eat and drink as normal but to be mindful when eating crunchy things with the front teeth.
I think we might hang on on biting into a whole apple etc till the other adult teeth have come down on both sides of it so that the teeth are a bit more supported?
Anyhow he was amazing, the dentist worked quickly and did a great job so all things considered it could have been a lot worse!
Phew! 😄