DENTAL CARE

Q: My Tooth Became Really Big. Can You Help Me? A: I saw this new patient last week and she was absolutely correct. When you looked at her, all that you saw was one tooth. I don’t mean that one tooth was all that was present. She actually has many teeth that show when she smiles and talks. What I am referring to is one tooth that stands out more prominently than all of those around it. How did it stand out? First of all it was much longer than the teeth on either side. It was her cuspid or “eye tooth” as people commonly refer to it The tooth is a large tooth to begin with, but this was even larger and more prominent than we normally see. The tooth was also pushed forward. When a front tooth is pushed forward, two things can result. First of all the tooth may bite into the lower lip and therefore feel strange. It also causes a protrusion of the upper lip. To top off these calls to attention by the tooth, the color was whiter than the rest.

I recently wrote about shorter teeth. This is the result of years and decades of wear of the biting surface as we get older. I also mentioned some teeth could do just the opposite. They appear to get longer as the gum and bone shrink a little away from the tooth. My new patient was not an example of either scenarios. Her tooth got much “longer” because of gum disease. Gum disease starts in the gums and then spreads to the bone. This disease is actually a bacterial infection that will destroy the bone that the tooth rests in. If all of the bone is destroyed, then the tooth will become loose. If you are lucky enough, so to speak, you won’t experience any pain and one day, the tooth will fall out of your head. More likely than not, you will have swelling and discomfort requiring help from a professional to either save the tooth or remove it, depending upon the severity of the situation.

Once the bone is attacked and slowly is destroyed, the tooth loses it’s primary stability. Let me give you an analogy. Think of a post in ground. If the earth is covering a good portion of post, then the post is stable. If the ground is dug away from the post and more post is above the ground, than in the ground, instability will appear. The post will become movable and if pressure is put on it, it will no longer be perfectly straight. It will start to lean to one side or the other. This is what happens to a tooth with gum disease and this is what I saw in the mouth in question.

Fortunately for her, the bone destruction did not extend significantly to the adjacent teeth. I recommended removing the tooth and replacement of it. The reason that the tooth was also whiter is due to the fact that she had an old crown on the tooth. That crown matched her teeth years ago and was thus whiter. No matter how I replace the tooth, I would correct the color and make it match it’s neighbors. So how did I plan on replacing the tooth after removal?

Our choices were either a single implant or a permanent bridge which can’t come out. After evaluating her, I recommended a bridge for 2 main reasons. The first reason was centered on the fact that the bone loss resulting in the bone moving upwards. If I placed an implant, the resultant tooth would be very long. Remember that was one of her initial concerns. A permanent bridge would deal with this long tooth issue better. Secondly, I would utilize my “Same Day-Immediate Bridge” technique that I developed. It allows me to remove a tooth and provide a replacement in usually less than an hour. This is what we did and she left with a stunning and much improved smile.

Best of all, she took advantage of our “Better than “Insurance” program that I mentioned in the last couple of columns. Rule do apply but she met all of the criteria and saved 20% of the fee. She looked wonderful and we saved her money. Call Megan today at 440.951.7856 and find out about our “Better Than Insurance” initiative to save you money and preserve your smile for a lifetime.