Dillon's Root Canal

Way back, over a year ago, Dillon fell at the hotel in California while we were in Disneyland.  His front permanent teeth took the brunt of it and a large portion were broken off.  We were able to find a dentist open late to put some filling one so at least they wouldn't be sharp.  Well, one of the teeth didn't make it.  

As you can see the one on the right has "closed" meaning the nerve has matured and the root finished growing.  It come to a nice point.  The grey "channel" in the middle is mostly sealed off and protected.  The one on the left (which is actually his right front tooth) stopped growing.  The root didn't mature so the nerve remained exposed.  The nerve died and caused an infection.  You can see the black "bubble" around the top and right side of the tooth in the x-ray.  That's where the infection was. It needed to be cleaned out before it started hurting him and caused problems.  Fortunately he didn't have any symptoms, the dentist caught it at his regular check up.  The nerve and infection needed to be cleaned out to keep the tooth from continuing to deteriorate and allow the bone to grow into those spaces.

We went in expecting a consultation.  I didn't realize it was a "evaluate and treat if needed appointment".  I hadn't prepared him to have it done that day.  He was pretty nervous and cried a little until the laughing gas kicked in to help him calm down.  He was a total trooper.  Unfortunately the inflammation was too bad to complete it on one day.  So after taking out the nerve and cleaning it as best as they could they put in a temporary filling and sent him home with some antibiotics.  A week later we were back in there doing it again so they could fill the entire inside of the tooth.

Here you can see the stages of the root canal.  You can see in the last x-ray that they were actually a "branch" leading to the side of the tooth where part of the infection was.  It got filled at the same time.  Now he could go on to have that tooth for his whole life.

We have a family history of bashing our front teeth.  When I was little we had a community pool across the street.  One day on my way home I tripped on my towel and knocked out my two front teeth (fortunately they were baby teeth) so I went extra time without front teeth.

Grandma G had an unfortunate incident with hers too!  She went head first down a slide.  One of her sisters bumper her which cause her face to slam down into the slide.  One of her teeth cracked but she ended up with root canals for both teeth.  She still has the "original" left front tooth!  So he could have his tooth his whole life even without a nerve!