My first molar is filled and broken

Q. My first molar on the bottom right hand side of my mouth is heeavily filled and has broken. My dentist has examined it and done a temporary fix but has given me 2 options, to have a crown fitted, but has said because there is so little of the tooth itself left root is intact the crown would be quite brittle as their is very little tooth to attach the crown to, so it may fail and i may have to have the tooth out anyway. The second is to have the tooth out and be left with a gap, which i dont feel will improve my smile. Are you able to say how likely the crown is to fail, and are there any other options.

A. Many times we as dentists do try and be heroic when saving a very broken down tooth.  If the root is sound but their is very little tooth above the gum and option would be to have crown lengthening involving removeing some bone around the neck of the ooth to expose mor tooth.  This will allow the crown to be attached to your tooth (ferrule effect) as well as a post into your root ( you would need root canal treatment if not already carried out).  This would increase the chances of success.  Certainly the other option would be to have your tooth removed and an implant placed .

Dr Julian Caplan
Aviva Cosmetic Dentistry
Director on the board of the British Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry
www.avivacosmeticdentistry.co.uk
101 St. Peters Street
St. Albans Hertfordshire
AL1 3EN

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Tags: broken teeth

This post was published on Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008 at 10:17 amand is filed under Dr Caplan's Answers, Experts Answers, Q. Broken teeth. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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