My husband recently fell and broke both of his front teeth. Do you know what we need to do to get this fixed? Will he need to extract them, or maybe get dental crowns? I will be honest that he is not crazy about the dentist so I’m trying to figure out what he needs to do in order to make things as easy as possible for him.
Savannah
Dear Savannah,
When you say your husband broke his front teeth do you mean like he chipped them or they broke off? Those will have completely different treatments. The first thing he’ll need to do is schedule a dental appointment. I wouldn’t call it an emergency appointment where he needs to be seen today, but I would call it urgent and he does not need to put this off.
You mentioned that your husband tends to avoid the dentist. He is certainly not alone there. Because he may have some underlying dental anxiety, I want to recommend you send him to a sedation dentist. Not only are they used to working with fearful patients, but they can provide him with a medication that will completely relax him. He might even start liking the dentist.
If his teeth are just chipped and there is no underlying damage to the roots, then you can just have some dental bonding done. If, however, there is some damage to the roots, he will need a root canal treatment.
If the tooth was broken off, it may still be possible to save the root of the tooth. First, he will still need a root canal treatment, but if the dentist uses a post that can be placed in the canal, he can then place a crown over the post. Just make sure it is a porcelain crown for esthetic reasons.
I’ll tell you up front that this is a tricky fix and not many dentists are even willing to try it. So that may be a hard sell depending on the dentist you find.
If the teeth cannot be saved, then dental implants are the best replacement option, but there are other options as well that his dentist can go over with him.
This blog is brought to you by Baton Rouge Dentist Dr. Steven Collins.