Trauma case this week

Trauma case this week

I had a very sweet 9 year old boy attend this week with a fractured upper right central incisor.

He had been playing on a see saw in the playground, when the metal part of the see saw hit him in the mouth causing half of his tooth to fracture. This happened whilst on holiday in Wales and his grandmother tried to make an appointment to get his tooth seen to.

Unbelievably not one dentist in the area had an emergency appointment that day and some even stated the next available NHS appointment would be in 6 months! A dentist did see him the next morning and put a temporary covering on the tooth.

I then saw him a few days later and after establishing the tooth was healthy, his medical history was clear, I restored this tooth.

Due to the size of the fracture I did administer local anaesthetic to make sure there was no sensitivity for him. Then I restored the tooth using a layering technique of a solid and liquid type of white filling material. This is called Venus heavy bodied composite and tetric flow light bodied. The tooth was polished and post operative instructions were given.

Impressions were also taken to make a sports guard for him to wear when running around or playing sports to try and protect this restoration, as this is almost half the tooth now.

Long term treatment plan for this boys will involve routine radiographs as he gets older to check the vitality of this tooth ( to see if this tooth is still alive ). Unfortunately restorations do not last forever so as an adult I suspect he will require a crown to protect this tooth.