When someone breaks a tooth, especially an anterior tooth that is prominent in their smile, it can really be an emotional experience.  Now imagine how a parent feels when their 11 year old has an accident and breaks a relatively new permenant tooth!  I wanted to share with you why, if at all possible, you bring in to the dentist, any fragments of a broken tooth after a tramatic accident.

This is a case of an eleven year old who was playing basketball a bit too aggressively, and had a fall.  He was fine except for the damage to the tooth you see here.  He immediately came in for care.

a broken tooth is very upsetting for the child and parent alikebroken tooth fragmentFortunately, this young fellows parents had the foresight to bring along the broken fragment from the tooth when they came see me .

Now we can't reattach all broken tooth fragments, but a piece of tooth ( or even porcelain from an artificial crown) can often be rebonded on to the tooth, if it fits well.  The average person couldn't decide if it is possible so always bring the pieces to the dentist and we can determine if it can be rebonded into place.

repaired tooth!

Looks as good as new.I can't tell you how happy this young fellow's parents were that I was able to see him quickly and repair the tooth so it looked as if nothing ever happened.

This tooth has been doing well for 6 years now!