The easiest, fastest way to at least temporarily fix this tooth was some bonding. Yes, it will DEFINITELY need a more definitive restoration (a crown) in the near future. But this will get him out the door and looking presentable!
At what point does a tooth need a veneer? We’ll discuss the criteria I use at a later date, but this nice young lady was told she needed veneers on these teeth. Now I’ll admit the teeth are not too pretty with the chipped and broken edges, but does it REALLY require veneers to properly restore them???
Chipped, broken teeth-before bonding
Here’s a patient that was told she’d need veneers due to the ’severe’ chipping and breakage of her front teeth. Now of course she didn’t like how the teeth looked, but she wondered if she really need something as costly and invasive as a veneer. Take a look below….what do you think??
Chipped, broken teeth-before bonding
For those of you involved in the dental industry, here’s a quick story. I had been purchasing my dental supplies for years and years from one of the ‘big’ dental supply companies. I really liked my dental rep, but the company basically treated my like dirt. Anyway, along comes Synergy Dental. They’re a group purchasing organization that has gotten special pricing from Darby Dental Supply, Brasseler USA, Orascoptic, and others. Anyway, I’ve already saved a bunch of money just by ordering the SAME supplies through them. You really should check it out.
And FYI, I have NO financial interest in the company at all.
And here’s the other side, with a much smaller original-sized tooth, and the bonding afterwards:
Small lateral incisor before bonding
Small lateral after bonding
So the photo in the post below shows a ‘peg’ lateral that is very small proportionally compared to the other teeth around it. Knowing this, the orthodontist and I discussed our options. We could do one of two possible treatments. Both would lead to my eventual bonding of the tooth, or in this case, BOTH laterals, to increase the size and correct the proportion between all of this young lady’s teeth.
Your discussion should revolve around the ultimate goal for these teeth. If the size discrepancy is small, then everyone may agree to simply close the spaces during the orthodontic treatment. However, many times the size difference is too great to do this:
Many, many people have teeth that are undersized, or too small, compared to their other teeth. Often these are the lateral incisors. When they are very small they are often called ‘Peg’ laterals. If these are found in a child you should have a frank discussion with your dentist and orthodontist about the ultimate plan for these teeth. Here’s an example of this:
Ok. Just a little bit into the tooth and you can already tell there’s a more going on inside than you could originally see.
Hidden cavity
Just saw this patient and thought we’d take photos of the procedure because I could see a ’shadow’ in the tooth, but absolutely nothing on her x-ray. Having done many teeth similarly, I thought this would be a good teaching case. Here’s a photo of the tooth before we started:
Tooth with cavity
