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!
This young man has recently finished braces, and the orthodontist sent him to us because of the gap that was left between these two teeth. All the other teeth were placed ideally, and if this space was closed the other teeth would be in the wrong spot so they would not function correctly or look right. So we talked about bonding to solve the problem.
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 the laterals were bonded to close the spaces and make ideally-sized teeth:
After the bonding to close the spaces and re-create the correct tooth proportion
Ultimately we decided to go with the first discussed option…..leaving ideal spaces and then bonding them closed. Now I have to warn you—-the orthodontist has to be VERY good for this work. If not, you will end with two teeth that do not match in size or proportion. Here’s the first tooth, before and after:
Small tooth with spaces before bonding
Tooth after bonding to close spaces and correct the size
We (the orthodontist and myself) discussed our two options.
1. Move the lateral incisors into the middle of the spaces, bond the teeth to make them ideal for size and proportion, finish the orthodontics.
2. Complete the ortho, leaving ideal spacing for the laterals, THEN bond the teeth after the orthodontics is finished.
Both are fairly difficult. We’ll talk about them in separate posts.
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:
So were able to conservatively repair this tooth in a few short minutes and get a great result just in time for this patient to head overseas for an extended trip. And no one will be able to tell she’s had anything done!
Broken tooth
Repaired tooth
Although this had been fractured for many years, this nice lady agreed to have the tooth repaired after additional small pieces fractured off. And she was heading overseas for an extended trip, too. So we wanted to be sure she had no problems on her trip.
fractured tooth
A few minutes later and we got this retired dentist back together. He was pleased with the final result….and so were we!
Repaired fracture tooth
