Again, I have to put a ’shout out’ to the Synergy Dental Partners. I started purchasing my supplies here a few months ago and have saved significantly on the SAME items I was ordering elsewhere. I have no financial interest in the company, other than saving me (and hopefully you!) some money. Take a look here.
And here’s the final result:
The patient was thrilled to have this area filled in! We’ll get him back soon for a ‘final’ photo, after the tissue has healed completely and the teeth have re-hydrated (they get a bit dried out during the bonding process).
The orthodontist moved the teeth and carefully created the ideal space for a lateral incisor:
Stone model during orthodontics
As discussed below, option 1 involves moving the teeth to their optimal position leaving the ideal spacing in place so the restorative dentist can bond the spaces that are left, creating teeth that are proportional to the other teeth. But if the orthodontist does not leave the correct amount of space the final result will result in a tooth that is too large or small for the others. In other words, the space has to be filled. If there’s too little you end up with a mini-tooth…..too much and you get a Chicklet! Not good!
Bottom line….the orthodontist has to get the spaces PERFECT for this option to work.
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
This was a tough deal. This poor man was on a camping trip with his kids in the middle-of-nowhere when his porcelain crown broke. He managed to slip it back into place and showed up to see us with the piece in hand.
Broken porcelain
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
So a few minutes later we had bonded some composite onto the tooth, replacing the fractured corner. This was accomplished by layering different shades of the material to simulate the internal colors of the tooth, then covering it with a different shade that was more like the patient’s own enamel. The result was a repaired tooth that looked and felt like the original.
Repaired tooth
Here’s a closer look at these two cavities. You can see that they extend slightly under the gumline:
Look at the extend of the decay inside this tooth. And again, no hot, cold, or bite sensitivity with only a small amount obvious on the x-ray. These are difficult to find and diagnose!
