Half of front tooth knocked out

jem16

My son ( age 23) had an accidental clash of heads at football yesterday and about half of his front tooth has been knocked out. There was a thin red line on the bit of tooth still attached and it was sore when he breathed in cold air. He has the bit of tooth broken off and it looks as if the top part has sheared off the remaining part as it's thinner.

He went to emergency treatment at the dental hospital today and they have removed the nerve and put some sort of temporary covering on it till he gets to his own dentist, hopefully tomorrow.

Has anyone any idea what might happen now?

Mumstheword

Dh knocked the corner off his tooth years ago with a drill (got caught in clothing, flung round and smacked him). As a temporary measure they made up a filler type material and stuck it to the tooth, and years later it's still there!

Not sure that would work tho if he's lost a lot of the tooth.

Sure Toothsmith will see this and offer you some advice....:)

donteatthat

If they have removed the nerve it will mean root canal therapy and possible a crown or veneer to restore it.
Luckily teeth usually only break in 1 place but it will need to be checked for root fractures and possible displacement in the socket.
Its a good idea to wear gum shield for football aswell as the obvious sports like hockey, rugby etc. You'd be surprised how many injuries like this occur from football.

Toothsmith

What he said!

jem16

donteatthat wrote: »

If they have removed the nerve it will mean root canal therapy and possible a crown or veneer to restore it.

I'm assuming it was necessary to remove the nerve. Is it never possible to save it?

Luckily teeth usually only break in 1 place but it will need to be checked for root fractures and possible displacement in the socket.

Hopefully we'll find out more tomorrow, assuming the dentist will be able to see him as it's Christmas Eve.

Its a good idea to wear gum shield for football aswell as the obvious sports like hockey, rugby etc. You'd be surprised how many injuries like this occur from football.

I have suggested this. Hoepfully he might follow this advice.

sillyvixen

i broke a frount tooth in the summer and it was covered as a temporary measure untill i could get to my dentist who tried to reconstruct it with white filling. this only lasted a week and came off when i bit into an egg sandwich (hardly tough food) so i ahd to have it replaced with a vaneer - not cheap but my dentist took the cost of the first reapair off the vaneer. i was glad to get it done and didn't mind the cost as it looked so bad broken. i ahd not been to my dentist in 18 years so i was glad to find that the rest of my teeth were fine and i didn't need any additional work.

Toothsmith

jem16 wrote: »

I'm assuming it was necessary to remove the nerve. Is it never possible to save it?

The 'thin red line on the bit of tooth still attached' you described in your OP was in all probability the exposed nerve chamber of the tooth.

Occasionally, if the nerve is accidentally exposed whilst filling a tooth, a dressing can cap the exposed bit of nerve, and the nerve sometimes remains alive. It all depends how much bacteria gets into the nerve chamber, as the nerve of a tooth doesn't deal with bacteria very well usually.

In your son's case, the tooth would have been broken, and the remnants of the nerve exposed to the bug soup that is saliva for (I'm guessing) a few hours. I would also guess that it was much more than a tiny exposure of the nerve. Those two facts together mean that removal of the rest of the nerve was the only sensible option here.

donteatthat

It sounds as though a large amount of the nerve was exposed by the injury and that will be why it was removed.
It is posible to cover the nerve,but as Toothsmith says, this is only is certain cases.

LuciferTDark

I have 3 teeth that were broken in similar ways, all 3 had to be de-nerved & crowned. Don't mention this to your son but the pain killing injections didn't work for me so I felt everything they did & screamed the place down, that was 20+ yrs ago though & I'm sure they've improved them since then.

jem16

Toothsmith wrote: »

In your son's case, the tooth would have been broken, and the remnants of the nerve exposed to the bug soup that is saliva for (I'm guessing) a few hours. I would also guess that it was much more than a tiny exposure of the nerve. Those two facts together mean that removal of the rest of the nerve was the only sensible option here.

You're correct as to the length of time. He went to A&E first to have it checked out as he'd also taken a hefty knock to his cheek. They couldn't do anything about the tooth as it wasn't fully knocked out and told him to go to his own dentist. Of course being a Saturday this proved very difficult. Finally managed to get some emergency treatment this morning.

Thank you both for your help.

jem16

LuciferTDark wrote: »

I have 3 teeth that were broken in similar ways, all 3 had to be de-nerved & crowned. Don't mention this to your son but the pain killing injections didn't work for me so I felt everything they did & screamed the place down, that was 20+ yrs ago though & I'm sure they've improved them since then.

Might just keep that bit to myself.

He said they had to put in an extra couple of injections today as although the gum was numb he could still feel it when they touched the tooth. It did work in the end though.