Front teeth removal Post Reply

[Furzedown Dad]

My daughter tripped and hit her mouth the other day. Small chip on one of her front teeth, and recently she said both were a bit sore. Took her to the dentist, who said they were probably infected and would need to come out, under general anaesthetic.

Obviously that's not great news. Quite apart from the risk of general, there's potential issues with eating and speech, as well as the cosmetic effect.

We're very keen to get a second opinion. We think we're covered under our private medical insurance, and are considering going to a private paediatric dentist to get her looked at again. The dentist we saw didn't do X-rays, and I'd definitely want those first, as well as some more advice on whether they absolutely NEED to come out.

Any recommendations for good private paediatric dentists would be very much appreciated.

[Celsky]

Hello,

We had a similar experience over the weekend with our 2 year old falling and slightly pushing his two front teeth in (3-4mm). We went to the out of hours emergency dentist who gave us antibiotics and said they would need to be extracted which of course gave us palpitations! His gums were swollen and his two front teeth were wobbly as well as intruded.
They referred us to Maxillofacial services as St Georges the next day (Sunday) and we saw the consultant who said they wont need to be extracted and with healing they should become firm and re-erupt. He also stated that damage to the adult teeth buds would have been done on impact and leaving the teeth in or taking them out would not cause further damage or make it better. He requested we go to a dentist for an X-ray and keep him on a soft diet until it heals. We visited the dentist on Monday and had the X-ray and the root of baby teeth were fine (we just have to wait and see how the adult teeth turn out!).

However even with the X-ray we have been warned that his baby teeth could over time discolour due to the injury, but at least its not for life!

I would not have made a decision to extract without an X-ray so your right to get one- it was our regular dentist that gave us one- so not sure with that injury why they wouldn’t in the course of decision making have offered you one.

I don’t know how they can make such a drastic clinical decision with seeing the clinical evidence for it!

Sorry does not answer your question but it might be helpful.

[Lukesmummy]

Sorry to hear about your daughters accident and damage to her teeth.
Much like the previous poster, I can't specifically answer your question but I can relate it to my own son's recent experience. He has just turned 2 years old.

A few months ago had a very nasty scooter accident which involved him falling straight onto his mouth. His (previously gorgeous) two front teeth were both badly chipped in two and the tooth next to the big tooth had a piece out of it. His gums were in a terrible state, swollen, bleeding and looked horrific. We took him to the dentist the next morning and she confirmed that he had had a 'major trauma' to his teeth and advised we keep an eye on them (they weren't wobbly and his initial horrendous looking gums looked fine after a week). She also made us an appointment with Chelsea and Westminster Paediatric Dentistry. Sadly, about a month ago, I spotted an abscess on his gum, above his front tooth. A quick google had already prepared me for the worst and this was confirmed by the NHS Chelsea and Westminster team - once you see an abscess, the tooth/teeth are already dead. I am absolutely gutted for my baby son and his lovely teeth. We are now waiting for an appointment for an x-ray followed by extraction all under general aesthetic. Until he has the x-ray they won't know which teeth need to be removed. I'm not looking forward to that day at all, it makes me feel very sad.

The C&W dentist was an amazing lady - so good with my son, and had lots of time to answer our questions. She said that she couldn't predict accurately whether there would be any impact to his big teeth but it was possibility. Apparently around the age of 2, the root of the big teeth are just starting to grow so damage is a possibility but one that we will simply have to wait and find out. When he is older he can have further x-rays etc. She also said that although people often worry about the impact on the child's eating/speech, this is actually rarely an issue. I'm not sure of the age of your daughter and whether this response would be the same for an older child. She also said that his big teeth may take longer to come through as the gum, once the baby tooth has been removed, becomes tougher.

As per the previous poster, from my experience above I would definitely request an xray for your daughter to determine the next steps.

All the best!

[Furzedown Dad]

Thanks, that's useful - and sorry to hear about your son's teeth. Hope everything goes well with his procedure.

My daughter is 3 and a half, so as you say things might be slightly different in terms of the effect on the adult tooth. Hers aren't wobbly at all - apart from the tiny chip there's nothing obviously wrong. No gum danage, no abscess, nothing. If it weren't for the fact that she said they were sore we wouldn't have thought to go to the dentist at all.

I forgot to mention in my original post that we are being referred to the paediatric dentists at the local hospital, but that could well take some time and we are keen to get this sorted out quickly. We'll go to the hospital too, but private gives us a third opinion, which with something this drastic I'm keen to take advantage of.

[Mela]

I am a dentist and have treated lots of children including my daughter with trauma to front teeth. if after an accident the teeth are not too wobbly we tend to monitor them. It is too early for them to be infected. We advise parents to look for discolouration, increased mobility, pain or gum boils which indicate infection over the following weeks/months. It is common for the teeth to be sensitive and advise a soft diet at first. obviously I cannot diagnose without seeing a child but from your description it sounds like a minor injury. fingers crossed she will just need some monitoring. We would only extract the teeth if there were signs of infection and were concerned it would affect the permanent teeth. Hope this reassures you a little!

[KatherineHepburn]

To be honest I'm not surprised they are sore, that must have really hurt, poor thing.
Same as the other posters, my daughter fell (at Bologna airport of all places!!!) and knocked one of her front teeth entirely back into the gum and chipped those either side. She was one at the time.
Upon landing in the UK we hit A&E as we assumed she'd knocked it clean out. Max Facial at St. George's were brilliant and decided not to touch it but see if it dropped back down again. It did over a few weeks.
We saw Hooman at Glow dental who was brilliant. He filed down the sharp bits on the chipped teeth and spent ages drawing diagrams and explaining what had happened. I feel very comfortable in recommending him to give you a second opinion.
Now at 4 that tooth is grey and dead. But he has said to keep it there as a spacer and I quote 'don't worry if the tooth behind has been marked, what else is cosmetic dentistry for? Don't worry'.
Star.
Hope your daughter feels much better soon.

[Furzedown Dad]

Thanks Mela and KatherineHepburn. Two useful and reassuring posts, band I appreciate the recommendation.

She's fine - they really don't seem to be bothering her too much. I'm hopeful that we will end up with just a watching brief for the time being.