With the broken piece bonded into place this patient will be able to function just fine until he can get back with us to make a new crown for this tooth and the one next to it. He was just relieved to have the tooth back together in one piece!
Bonded broken porcelain
This tooth recently had a root canal. The specialist referred her so that we could improve the esthetics of the corner or edge. Our solutions included a veneer, a crown, or bonding. Although the tooth may need the other more invasive procedures later, we opted to try and improve the look by altering the existing bonding.
Tooth before new bonding
Here’s a retired dentist who had an old filling that fractured out of this tooth. It was originally placed when he was in dental school and had served him well for many, many years.
Fractured front tooth
So we cleaned the cavity out of both, filling the front tooth and placing a porcelain crown on the one next to it. The resulting change was dramatic! And our patient was VERY happy to get both of these teeth fixed….and looking MUCH better! (Again, for reference, the old porcelain crown- with the obvious margin where the tooth and crown meet-is located directly behind our new crown).
Crown and filling-after
A ‘wake board’ is what took care of the edge of this tooth. Ideally we’d like to retain the fractured portion of the tooth and try and bond it back onto the remaining tooth structure. When fit properly the crack is almost imperceptible and the tooth remains stable for a very long time. But since this was long-gone (sitting at the bottom of a lake somewhere) we would have to re-build the tooth out of composite.
Fractured tooth
Here’s a closer look at these two cavities. You can see that they extend slightly under the gumline:
One last example. It’s obvious these teeth are in need of a little work. You can see the dark grooves with the shadows underneath, and the silver filling that is in the back tooth is going to be replaced too.
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!
So to review…we started out here:
A few minutes later we were here:
What would YOU want for YOUR tooth?
Since this tooth was cracked for a second time, this patient was told by her dentist that the ONLY solution was to place a porcelain crown. She wasn’t excited about the possibility of having a crown on this one front tooth. I took a more conservative approach, though…..what would YOU want done with YOUR tooth?
