Can That Tooth be Saved?

If you have ever seriously damaged a tooth, you may very well have asked yourself this question: “can they save my tooth?”  The answer in a good many cases is “yes.”  Even if you might be considering saving a bad tooth for merely cosmetic reasons, the mental health aspect of keeping your teeth vital is all important.

Techniques have come great distances, and with those advances the ability to save damaged teeth has increased.  Quintpub.com has listed some factors regarding when to know if your tooth is a lost cause:

There are two major factors that most commonly relegate a strategic tooth to the “hopeless” status: restorability and periodontal support. The tooth that cannot be restored or that has inadequate, unmanageable periodontal support is hopeless.

With modern restorative materials and techniques, most teeth can be restored. Even teeth with carious lesions causing destruction of most of the coronal tooth structure are now restorative. Extensive coronal destruction frequently requires endodontic therapy, and/or crown-lengthening therapy.

Among other concerns in regard to the tooth in question will be the state of the tooth’s pulp.  Essentially, if the pulp has been worn down excessively over a period of time, injuries, or simply damaged beyond the point of repair, the tooth may be a lost cause.  Another major concern is periodontal disease. If the support of a tooth has been eradicated, the tooth may then become a lost cause as well.  However, in this case, your odds of saving the tooth are still significantly better then they were even just a few decades ago.

For more information on comprehensive and cosmetic dentistry, contact Dr. Robert Williamson today!