Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

Flip

Original poster

Broken tooth - has yours had one?

13 replies

maggiethecat · 11/10/2010 14:22

Dd just broke hers today (only stump of a tooth left). Dentist glued broken piece back on but I'm not too optimistic that it will hold.

Has yours had a broken tooth (not chipped) and what's happened with it?

(posted on health as well)

OP posts:

GooseyLoosey · 11/10/2010 14:35

Not a broken one but a dead one - a lovely brown colour. They are keen on leaving it in so it holds the place for the adult tooth. Ds's adult tooth is just growing in now and is absolutely fine.

Original poster

maggiethecat · 11/10/2010 14:41

We're not so lucky Goosey. It took forever for her milk teeth to fall out and adult teeth were waiting behind. They finally came through and she chipped one of the front ones a few months ago and today she's broken it!

She was really a sorry sight today sitting in the medical room with this stump of a tooth and blood all over her

Hopefully the cement will hold and the nerve won't be damaged. Not sure what would happen eventually.

OP posts:

Madsometimes · 11/10/2010 15:03

I'm sorry that this has happened to you.

My dd1 is 10 and broke her front (adult) tooth while we were on holiday (luckily in the UK). She was seen by an emergency dentist, who glued on a filling, because the tooth was lost. We had to wait six weeks to find out if the tooth had survived, and thankfully it did .

She does have to be careful about what she eats, and cannot bite into an apple. Other than that, no problems. When she is older, she will have a more cosmetic fix, but actually the temporary filling looks fine.

Original poster

maggiethecat · 11/10/2010 15:52

Mad, that's very reassuring. I think I feel worse than she does atm and a bit guilty for thinking why does she not close her mouth when she falls over (we've had this discussion after the chip that happened months ago -'if you fall over close your mouth to protect your teeth'). But I suppose like anything else, easier said than done.

She already has dentition problems - her teeth will be all over the place and I think this just makes things worse.

Hopefully there will be no nerve problem and we'll take things one step at a time.

The big issue at the moment is that she can't have her patty that she begged me for after the dentist (tho I told her I wasn't sure when she could have it - apparently it should be soft foods for today).

Good thing she doesn't like apples

OP posts:

maggotts · 12/10/2010 00:48

DD2 broke front tooth down to a tiny stump last year. Local dentist said that only solution was a series of caps. Took her to extortionate but superb specialist in London who did procedure known as Cvek pulpotomy and reattached fragment so (a) tooth stump is alive and can carry on gowing and (b) it looks just like it always did with the faintest line to show where it broke.

All has gone well so far and remaining tooth still white and alive and growing well. She is fine with everything execpt whole apples and corn on the cob.

When she is older it will be capped/crowned and will be identical to other tooth. For now, it is almost perfect in appaerance anyway and she (and we) are very happy with it.

Madsometimes · 12/10/2010 09:42

The dentist that attached the filling was very cautious about managing our expectations. He said that dd1 did have a significant break, and that as the nerve was exposed, there was a good chance that the tooth would die away.

Therefore we were very pleased with the outcome. Yes, when it first happened I was very upset, so I came on MN to ask for advice on this thread

Original poster

maggiethecat · 12/10/2010 10:13

Thanks for that link Mad. Sometimes I wonder if I am overprotective but I can see how any parent would find this upsetting. I feel that she's been a bit unlucky, having had dentition problems already.

I take the point about expectation management - the dentist was quick to say that the nerve might die and we would just have to wait and see. He may refer us to Eastman dental clinic in central London where she's already been seen bcos of her dentition issues.

I was on the internet yesterday, as you do, looking up what to do in the event of a broken tooth. Most references stressed the importance of quick attention. I'm glad that I was not fobbed off by the dentist's receptionist, whom even after I explained the situation, told me that I'd have to wait a few hours bcos the dentist was booked up! I kindly told her that I was bringing dd in immediately anyway.

How long did it take before your dd was seen?

OP posts:

Original poster

maggiethecat · 12/10/2010 11:19

Maggots, how long after accident was the CVEK done? I looked it up and see where even months later it can be done.

I just want to have an idea in case in 2 weeks time the dentist says that the nerve has been damaged and intervention is required.

OP posts:

Madsometimes · 12/10/2010 12:35

We did have to wait a few hours. She was seen about 4 hours after the accident. It was fortunate that she broke her teeth during office hours, because I have no idea if out of hours dentists exist!

Original poster

maggiethecat · 12/10/2010 13:04

You probably would have had to go to A&E. Like everything else it's all about timing..

OP posts:

deaddei · 12/10/2010 17:09

DS broke off half his front tooth (adult one)nearly 2 years ago. We were away and couldn't visit our dentist for another 4 days.
They cemented some filler on- we lost the original tooth- and have hhad no problems. He can eat apples too!
Dentist has said it may come off at some point- will be redone. And when he's older (he's 11) his tooth can be crowned or whatever.

SE13Mummy · 12/10/2010 22:01

As a child I chipped one of my front teeth almost as soon as I got it then promptly broke the other! In neither case was the nerve exposed but with the second tooth the dentist built it up again using something (it was a long time ago - I was 7 and am now 33!).

On a school trip a child in my class did a handstand in a swimming pool but forgot to put his hands down and broke one of his teeth. I took him to an emergency dentist who did an x-ray which revealed that the nerve wasn't exposed. The idea was that his mum would take him to have it reconstructed when we returned from the residential trip. She didn't and a couple of months later he was knocked over by a car and not expected to survive. He did, rather miraculously, but the tooth repair never happened. He's now a teenager with a jagged, but alive, tooth!

DandyDan · 12/10/2010 22:55

One of ours broke both their upper front two teeth (adult teeth) when they were six, into two "fangs". After a few years of temporary fillings, these were filed down into small stumps and crowned at the age of 10, I think. These crowns are still in place and still look fine. There was some issuea couple of years ago with the root of one of the teeth having some decay at its base which took two further years of appointments and quarterly "drilling down to the nerve and filling up with medical gunk" for us not to lose that tooth altogether. All is fine currently (late teens).

Flip