Infection then tooth implant
Discussion
Any dentists care to weigh in?
I've got two crowns due to an ill advised skateboarding foray as a kid. One of them has "leaked", which has resulted in a rather painful infection in the root. Thankfully, constrained to just the one tooth (confirmed by x-ray).
As the posts are large (I needed root canal done at the same time all those years back), the dentist says there is a strong likelihood the root will break when he tries to remove the post (by vibration?) to get to the infection. So, advice is to be assessed for an implant to replace. I follow the logic so far and have no concerns about that.
The waiting list just for consultation with the implant specialist is 6 weeks. My general dentist has prescribed me 5 days of antibiotics in the meantime, but... Ubi pus, ibi evacua. Should I be concerned at waiting 6 weeks plus however long the waiting time is to get the work done? I suppose the alternative is to get the tooth pulled now and hope that an implant can be done, but that will presumably carry different risks re the gap closing up and so on.
ETA any idea if a crown + post + root can be safely pulled in one go? I'd quite like to keep it
I've got two crowns due to an ill advised skateboarding foray as a kid. One of them has "leaked", which has resulted in a rather painful infection in the root. Thankfully, constrained to just the one tooth (confirmed by x-ray).
As the posts are large (I needed root canal done at the same time all those years back), the dentist says there is a strong likelihood the root will break when he tries to remove the post (by vibration?) to get to the infection. So, advice is to be assessed for an implant to replace. I follow the logic so far and have no concerns about that.
The waiting list just for consultation with the implant specialist is 6 weeks. My general dentist has prescribed me 5 days of antibiotics in the meantime, but... Ubi pus, ibi evacua. Should I be concerned at waiting 6 weeks plus however long the waiting time is to get the work done? I suppose the alternative is to get the tooth pulled now and hope that an implant can be done, but that will presumably carry different risks re the gap closing up and so on.
ETA any idea if a crown + post + root can be safely pulled in one go? I'd quite like to keep it
The gap won't close up in six weeks & I'm pretty sure they wouldn't put an implant in if there was active infection so you need to get that cleared up anyway. If you go for a root canal & new crown & it works then that's fine but if it fails you'll need an implant anyway & you'll end up paying the not inconsiderable cost of the root canal in addition to the implant. It's a gamble but it might be worth it to you.
Just an update to this... Saw the implant specialist, he's reviewed the X-rays and it's clear that part of the root of the tooth is eaten away by the infection. So, it's gone from "probably break the root" to "yup, that's just going to fall out".
Plus side is that I'll get a little keepsake.
Downside is the whole treatment Inc CT scans, bone growing, abutment and implant itself is going to be the price of a half decent V8 smoker barge. Bah.
Plus side is that I'll get a little keepsake.
Downside is the whole treatment Inc CT scans, bone growing, abutment and implant itself is going to be the price of a half decent V8 smoker barge. Bah.
donkmeister said:
Downside is the whole treatment Inc CT scans, bone growing, abutment and implant itself is going to be the price of a half decent V8 smoker barge. Bah.
Been there, done that. In my case a front, upper incisor broken as a kid and crowned many years ago. Eventually the root cracked and you can guess the rest. By the time the implant was required significant bone growing was needed before the job could be done. Ended up spending many months with no front tooth which, whilst looking like a hill-billy, was better than the alternative. With hindsight I'm very pleased I had it done properly, despite the significant "investment" involved. Good luck. It won't be fun but you'll appreciate the end result.Panamax said:
Been there, done that. In my case a front, upper incisor broken as a kid and crowned many years ago. Eventually the root cracked and you can guess the rest. By the time the implant was required significant bone growing was needed before the job could be done. Ended up spending many months with no front tooth which, whilst looking like a hill-billy, was better than the alternative. With hindsight I'm very pleased I had it done properly, despite the significant "investment" involved. Good luck. It won't be fun but you'll appreciate the end result.
This is identical to my situation, and treatment plan, so I'm glad to hear you are glad you had yours done!!!The one difference is the dentist will be fitting a "rochette bridge" during the bone growing part so I won't have a big gap. So much for my Hillbilly fancy dress ideas for next Halloween
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