Fractured permanent front teeth
If your child has fractured a permanent tooth due to trauma, they will most likely experience sensitivity to hot/cold and pressure.
The severity of the trauma on the tooth will dictate how we will treat it:
A minor fracture with no sensitivity to hot/cold:
We tend to find that most patients could damage a very small edge of their tooth during their day to day activities. For this instance, if cosmetically possible, we recommend smoothing down the fractured edge.
Minor fracture with low sensitivity to hot/cold:
We will give the area around the tooth and the nerve around 5-7 days to calm down before going in and doing a filling.
Fracture with high sensitivity to hot/cold:
If there is no significant soft tissue swelling, we can do a filling. We might place some calming medications on the area to help calm down the nerve. Please see the instructions on deep fillings for more info.
Fracture with an exposed nerve:
Unfortunately, due to the nerve being exposed, we have to recommend a root-canal to ideally treat the tooth and the nerve. How much of the tooth structure was destroyed will dictate how we will restore the tooth.
Vertical fracture of a tooth, limited to the crown area:
We will treat this like the tooth fracture with an exposed nerve. However, the final prognosis is unpredictable, due to the fact that we cannot see the micro-vertical fracture. This can lead us to extract the tooth. We will continue to monitor the tooth and act accordingly.
Visible, vertical, fracture down involving the root:
Unfortunately, this is the worst-case scenario in which we have to recommend extraction. Your child will have a temporary flipper to replace the tooth until they are old enough for implants or placement of a dental bridge.
Read our post on how to prevent sports-related injuries.