Suppose part of someone’s tooth breaks off. They are not in pain, and the rest of the tooth does not appear to be crumbling. Is there any imperative that they visit a dentist, and if so, for what purpose, and what can the dentist do about it anyway (other than stripping the rest of the tooth and putting in a crown)?
Once the enamel is broken, decay happens more rapidly, not to mention nerves may be exposed. The dentist can fill it, veneer it, cap or crown it, or replace it with a bridge or implant. But, if there’s no pain, and you don’t care what it looks like, and don’t mind that it may eventually rot away, you can just let it go.
As a kid, I had fillings in my molars. Shortly after I married a military man and moved to Germany, one of my molars busted–one “corner” came off. I went to the dental clinic on post.
The dentist I saw explained that if I went to a civilian dentist, the tooth would get a crown. But the military doesn’t do crowns. The repair I got then was a metal pin and a silver amalgam build up. That lasted many years.
It’s a fact of life, though, that once a tooth has been drilled and filled, it is much weaker than a healthy tooth. The stress of chewing will accumulate, and a repair such as I had will break.
I had it crowned later.
Once the “meat” of the tooth interior has been exposed to the environment of the mouth, though, you have the potential to develop an abscess. And exactly that happened. So the tooth that had had fillings, a post and amalgam repair, and a gold crown eventually developed an abscess and I had a root canal.
Moral of the story: a busted tooth is trouble. If not now, one day.
(oh, I still have the tooth, and it’s doing fine)
~VOW
My son busted off a large piece of one of his front teeth several years ago. We took him to a dentist who stuck on some material to take care of the cosmetic aspect. It comes off every year or so and we take him to have it done again. When he is fully grown, he’ll get something more permanent done.