Ds broke both front teeth--his permanent, adult teeth

[Harriet Vane]

Hi folks,

 

Today after church ds broke his two front teeth while playing basketball. He tripped and fell right on his face, poor guy.

 

The irony is that just this week a friend of mine spent some time showing ds how to fall properly (in such a way so as not to break his wrists). Ds is extremely athletic.

 

Both front teeth--his permanent, adult teeth--are broken.

 

It was terribly frustrating. I shouted at an elder to please get some milk for the teeth fragments and ended up enraged at how he walked to find the milk. Walked! No one understood why I was shouting for milk, and poor ds was screaming and crying with blood streaming down his chin. I ended up grabbing ds' hand and running out the back door of the church into the alley and getting the car while dh got the fragments at least into some water. I dropped off dh and ds at the ER and ran home (just a block from the ER) to get the fragments in milk. (Our church is just two minutes by car from both our house and the hospital--our home is just a block from the hospital.)

 

The first ER was sloooooow to tell us that they cannot actually do anything about broken teeth and would not help us figure out where to go. A nurse took pity on us and gave ds some Tylenol and told us a different ER that has an oral surgeon on call. (She told us this kind of secretly--I cannot imagine why nobody was allowed to help us.) We tried calling in the car on the way but they absolutely refused to consider calling the oral surgeon until we were admitted.

 

Once at our second ER it was again sloooooooow--no one had authorization to call the oral surgeon. First the paperwork had to be filled out. Then the triage nurse took a look. Then another nurse. Then two residents. And finally the residents agreed that none of them know anything about teeth and called the oral surgeon.

 

The oral surgeon was really nice (several of the people we dealt with were nice, but slooooow!!!!!). It was she who told us that she cannot fix ds' teeth either and we need a dentist. At this point two hours had elapsed. I was ready to cry--I could have spent those two hours getting an emergency dentist if just one of the people along the way would have told me so. (And yes, they could have told me--apparently that is run-of-the-mill for broken teeth.)

 

The oral surgeon did something to cover the exposed nerves for the night. My dear fil ran down our pediatric dentist on the phone--she assured us that the oral surgeon did exactly what she (our dentist) would have done, and so tomorrow we go in with our teeth fragments and she'll put poor ds back together.

 

Still shaking, and just sad that ds will have "fake," fragile teeth now. Enraged at the people at church who were too cool to run to the kitchen or the parish house for milk. Enraged at the ER folks who didn't do their best to help us (though grateful--truly--for the handful that were kind to us).

 

Thanks for listening--anyone have any advice from similar experience? Ds is very athletic--will this hamper him much?

 

Thanks.

[happi duck]

:grouphug::grouphug::grouphug:

[PollyOR]

:grouphug: My oldest has chipped/broken front teeth. It is frustrating to deal with. When she was younger, she was always breaking/popping off the fake material. She was very self-conscious about it. I'm thankful that we have the technology to "fix" teeth in this day and age.

[Lakeside]

I don't have any advice, only :grouphug:. I'm so sorry for the ordeal that you and your son have gone through. I cringe every time a see a kid fall forward for that very reason.

 

How sad that something traumatic enough on its own was made worse by unhelpful people. I hope things go well tomorrow at the dentist and that you get some good news.

[ahousefullofjs]

No advice, just :grouphug:

[clarkacademy]

sorry about that. My daughter just got braces off and after $ 4,800 I was not to keen on her doing anything but talk to your dentist about mouthguard. It is a protective piece he wears for sports and avtive play. Thankfully his nerves are not damaged.

[gingersmom]

My brother has had a fake front tooth for years. Its a cap that he can take on/off. My mother had her front tooth capped and it lasted about 30 years before chipping recently.

[Blessedfamily]

My 6 yo was shoved to the floor at a warehouse store. Blood all over her chin, and I was livid and shaking.

 

Two baby teeth were knocked out, and a front permanent tooth chipped. She spent months with three teeth missing, until the two adult teeth came in to replace the two baby teeth.

 

I knew, from working in an emergency room, that we'd have to wait to see our dentist. I can't imagine why the first hospital didn't tell you that from the start.

 

It's been over a year and the chipped permanent tooth still isn't fixed, because the dentist says the tooth still isn't completely erupted through her gums. She also says dd hasn't worn down the jagged edge that new teeth have.

 

It's a very tiny chip now that the edges have started to wear down. Actually, I read (and the dentist confirmed), that small chips on the bottom of a tooth are more likely to come off than big chips. The dentist just says, "Well, if it comes off, we'll just put it back on." How nice.

Edited May 2, 2010 by Blessedfamily

[KnitWit]

I'm so sorry!!! I feel his pain! My best friend knocked my upper front two adult teeth out playing tennis my SENIOR YEAR IN HIGH SCHOOL!!! Mine actually broke off, so my dentist made *temporary* caps with a moulding compound. My parents put off getting the permanents and right before my wedding, one of them broke off!! My *new* dentist replaced them with much nicer *temporaries* and I hate to admit that nearly 25 years of marriage to a self-employed man with no dental insurance later....I've still GOT THEM! LOL!

 

The thing that changed for me was that I quit playing my clarinet. I couldn't handle the fear that I'd *pop my teeth out*. I also quit biting things like apples, I cut them with a knife. I think it's mostly psychological and if I'd gotten the permanents, I might have had more faith in them! LOL!

 

I really need to do that...

 

Anyway...it shouldn't hamper him...especially if you have dental insurance and get them done right. I mean, my goodness! Dentistry has come a long way since the early 80's! I'm sure you won't even be able to tell!

 

He has my deepest sympathies though. I can still hear that *pop* in my head...

[Lolly]

It is traumatic. Makes you feel sick to your stomach for days and days. But, it will be okay. It won't hamper him at all.

 

Dd has one tooth completely lost. It was broken, but the root was damaged badly causing it to have to be removed. She has a bridge with a fake tooth there. Hopefully, once she turns 18, we can have an implant put in. One front tooth broken off above the half-way point. That one now has a crown. One bottom tooth broken about 1/4 the way down. That one just has some bonding material on it to build it up. She isn't having problems with any of it. She lost them, wow, 3 years ago?! She does have to watch what she eats. She really misses eating whole apples. Otherwise, it is fine.

[OhM]

:grouphug:

 

If it's any consolation - dh has had caps on his two front teeth since he was about 12. He was fighting w/his brother. He says after the initial accident and repair, it hasn't been a big deal. I think he's had them replaced once.

 

Sorry he and you had to go through this!

[LauraGB]

I broke both my top front teeth in 5th grade. The regular dentist applied bonding to them; they matched the color and sculpted them to look like normal teeth. No one ever knew the difference. Every ten years or so, I had to have the bonding redone (coloring, staining, etc). Just last year I had veneers put on because my teeth started to shift (possibly from the trauma from when I broke them?). I have a friend who was hit in the face with a baseball - she has crowns because there was so little of her regular teeth left. If he has some of his original tooth left, I would opt for either the bonding or the veneers, personally. Bonding is fairly inexpensive; in the hundred or two range per tooth. Veneers are more expensive - in the thousand or so range per tooth. Both typically need to be replaced every 10-15 years, on the average.

 

HTH. Sorry he's got to deal with that. But modern cosmetic dentistry is pretty amazing.

[Aubrey]

No advice, just wanted to chime in w/ sympathy! I'm so sorry!! :grouphug:

[Jen in PA]

The whole thing sounds so scary and frustrating!:grouphug:

[elegantlion]

I fell and broke out my front teeth as a kid too. This was the late 70s, but they waited about a week and fitted me for caps. They ended up being straighter than my real teeth. Mine were broken in half so they had an easy time making the caps. I'm sure with todays technology they will look great.

 

Although mine need to be redone (30 years) it ended up being not that big of a deal in the long run.

 

I did have a root canal done of one of my front teeth several years back, but I'm not sure if it was related to breaking them out.

 

Ironically a few months later one of my friends broke out her teeth when her bike flipped.

 

I second the mouthguard.

 

:grouphug:

[Momof1plustwins]

:grouphug:

So sorry this happened. Sounds terribly painful.

 

My son fell off our couch once and landed on his mouth when he was 4. He knocked his front teeth loose and it was horrifying just to see him in such pain, and all the blood. Of course they were his baby teeth though.

 

I'll say a prayer for your son's recovery.

[MamaT]

:grouphug: So sorry for your ds. Sorry too that people let you down when you needed their help.

 

My sil has had caps on her front teeth the entire time I've known her (30+ years). She has always been very active surfing and scuba diving (she is a marine biologist). She has had them replaced once.

[Jennifer in MI]

:grouphug::grouphug::grouphug::grouphug:

 

It's so hard in an emergency situation. I hope he's out of pain.

 

My dh has two front teeth with bonding. He's had that since he was a kid. They keep saying he'll need a crown, but he never has. His teeth look great!

 

Two of my kids have broken permanent teeth. Both have bonding. We have to get them fixed every couple years. But, you really can't tell! It's amazing what they can do!!

[i.love.lucy]

:grouphug: So sorry for him!

 

Didn't know about the milk thing. I assume the calcium protects the teeth fragments or something? But in cases like these do they really ever even try to glue back on the pieces?

 

Again, :grouphug: and so sorry!

[rafiki]

.

[cjbeach]

Not that this will make you feel any better but cosmetic dentistry has come so far that by the time your DS's teeth are fixed you will be envious of how beautiful they are! But OMG, what a day you must be having. :grouphug:

 

I had a lot of damage from braces (!!!) across my top teeth. My local cosmetic dentist talked me into doing a lot for my top teeth, but they're beautiful. I get comments on my teeth frequently. It was a lot of money but so worth it.

 

I'm just grateful that these cosmetic repairs *are* available now.

 

I once dated an ex-hockey player who had prosthetic teeth. All of them.( I didn't get into it with him he just tossed it out there and I didn't question.)

[Heather in the Kootenays]

Ds broke off one of his permanent teeth when he was about 10. The dentist replaced the broken part by building up the same type of material they use for white fillings. That was 5 years ago and it's just like a real tooth. We don't even think about it. It's never broken but might need to be made a bit larger because his other tooth has grown. Unless you look closely you'd never know.

 

I was pretty freaked out about it when it happened but so far so good.

[~Kirsten~]

Add my sympathies to the group! :grouphug: You poor, poor, frazzled, frightened woman! And your poor son!

 

FWIW, I fractured a front tooth as a child (permanent), and without the piece, it was rebuilt. Then, when I was 13, I had a bicycle accident where I knocked out 3 teeth, including the rebuilt one, and fractured my jaw. The teeth were reinserted. Now, I did have to have root canals on all 3 and ultimately, two had to be pulled. But guess what? The fractured tooth? Still in my mouth today! :D It's covered now by a permanent bridge (which I got when I was 17; until then I had a removable flipper thing).

 

Also, my husband fractured half of a front tooth. He has it rebonded periodically, but he has had no further problems. This last visit, he and the dentist discussed veneers, and that's probably something he'll eventually pursue, but I really can't see the line of the fracture at all now. It's amazing what they can do! His also needed to be rebuilt rather than reattached.

 

So, to sum up, great job saving those pieces (even though the parish people weren't helpful)! Great job pursuing every option (even though the ER people weren't helpful)! Just...great job!

 

By the way, my daughter has fallen on her front teeth 3 times already, knocking out two of her baby teeth on two different occasions. Apparently, we're destined to have teeth trauma in our household! But experiencing it on both sides, as the child and the parent, I'll take living through myself every. single. time. Lots and LOTS of hugs to you, again! I hope tomorrow goes quickly and as painlessly as possible for you all!

[3lilreds in NC]

Oh, strider, I'm so sorry! I can't imagine how you must be feeling. Well, I can imagine it, but I know it would be exponentially magnified if I were really in your shoes. :grouphug:

 

When my sister was young, I can't remember exactly her age, she was hit by a car while riding on her bike and ate some pavement. It was truly a miracle - the driver that hit her was going VERY slowly, the vehicle behind them contained an EMT and a nurse, etc.

 

Anyhoo, one of her permanent front top teeth was ruined. She had to have a temporary fake tooth put in, and then once her face had stopped growing, she had a permanent one put in. *I* can tell it's there, because I know what happened, but I'd wager that no one who meets her out of the blue would ever know unless she told them.

 

I say this to offer some small assurance that your ds will live a long, full life after what has happened to his teeth. I hope you can hear that I'm speaking mostly tongue-in-cheek, here, but I'm trying to offer you a cyber hug and help you see beyond this immediate, heart-stopping moment. I'm so sorry, Sweetie, I truly am. Let us know what happens at the dentist tomorrow.

[Harriet Vane]

Thanks everyone. Your kind words have been reassuring--I have re-read the thread a few times already today.

 

Please remember my ds in prayer tomorrow when we go to the dentist.

 

Thanks.

[MariannNOVA]

Hi folks,

 

Today after church ds broke his two front teeth while playing basketball. He tripped and fell right on his face, poor guy.

 

The irony is that just this week a friend of mine spent some time showing ds how to fall properly (in such a way so as not to break his wrists). Ds is extremely athletic.

 

Both front teeth--his permanent, adult teeth--are broken.

 

It was terribly frustrating. I shouted at an elder to please get some milk for the teeth fragments and ended up enraged at how he walked to find the milk. Walked! No one understood why I was shouting for milk, and poor ds was screaming and crying with blood streaming down his chin. I ended up grabbing ds' hand and running out the back door of the church into the alley and getting the car while dh got the fragments at least into some water. I dropped off dh and ds at the ER and ran home (just a block from the ER) to get the fragments in milk. (Our church is just two minutes by car from both our house and the hospital--our home is just a block from the hospital.)

 

The first ER was sloooooow to tell us that they cannot actually do anything about broken teeth and would not help us figure out where to go. A nurse took pity on us and gave ds some Tylenol and told us a different ER that has an oral surgeon on call. (She told us this kind of secretly--I cannot imagine why nobody was allowed to help us.) We tried calling in the car on the way but they absolutely refused to consider calling the oral surgeon until we were admitted.

 

Once at our second ER it was again sloooooooow--no one had authorization to call the oral surgeon. First the paperwork had to be filled out. Then the triage nurse took a look. Then another nurse. Then two residents. And finally the residents agreed that none of them know anything about teeth and called the oral surgeon.

 

The oral surgeon was really nice (several of the people we dealt with were nice, but slooooow!!!!!). It was she who told us that she cannot fix ds' teeth either and we need a dentist. At this point two hours had elapsed. I was ready to cry--I could have spent those two hours getting an emergency dentist if just one of the people along the way would have told me so. (And yes, they could have told me--apparently that is run-of-the-mill for broken teeth.)

 

The oral surgeon did something to cover the exposed nerves for the night. My dear fil ran down our pediatric dentist on the phone--she assured us that the oral surgeon did exactly what she (our dentist) would have done, and so tomorrow we go in with our teeth fragments and she'll put poor ds back together.

 

Still shaking, and just sad that ds will have "fake," fragile teeth now. Enraged at the people at church who were too cool to run to the kitchen or the parish house for milk. Enraged at the ER folks who didn't do their best to help us (though grateful--truly--for the handful that were kind to us).

 

Thanks for listening--anyone have any advice from similar experience? Ds is very athletic--will this hamper him much?

 

Thanks.

 

I'm so sorry for your ds. My ds broke his front adult tooth about 14 months ago - he was getting up in the lunch room at school, tripped over the leg of someone's chair, and hit the lunch table on his way down to the floor. The pediatric dentist did the repair - first a temporary repair that was done a couple hours after it happened - ds' lip was swollen, sore, and the starch had been knocked out of him. Your ds will likely be sore tomorrow.

 

Then, a month later, the permanent repair, and truly, I cannot remember at this point in time which tooth it was - right or left.

 

My ds is athletic too - it has not caused any problems - but, you can get a mouth guard (we use them for lacrosse) at Modell's or those kinds of places.

[EmeraldGirl]

That happened to my oldest when he was 10; fell off his bike while having an asthma attack, passed out and got drug down the sidewalk on his bike. He was covered head to toe in loss of skin. I was working. When I came home, the babysitter had him on the couch with ice packs (another story of an ex-husband who told her to wait for me to get home) and he looked absolutely horrible. I saw his feet first, worked my way up his body and said "oh no, open your mouth!" ...both front teeth missing more than half. I immediatelly took him to the ER.

 

He got composites until he was 16, when we had the caps, crowns and bridges. Thankfully we had dental insurance as it still cost over $1k.

 

I am sorry you are going through this. I still feel the pain of seeing my son that way all these years later.

[NCMom]

When we lived in NH I knew several ex-hockey players who had a fake tooth or two. One had a post type thingy with a cap or something like that for a front tooth. He was a chemist who had played hockey in college. He always did much outdoor/sports stuff, including rugby. ;) He said it was pretty common. I think your ds is likely to be fine with whatever sports he does in the future. :grouphug:

 

Georgia

Edited May 3, 2010 by Georgia in NC
added something

[LibraryLover]

Oh, poor guy! Poor mom! I am so sorry. It will eventually be ok, but I can very well imagine the worry! Take care. :grouphug:

[wy_kid_wrangler04]

Wow :grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug:

 

I have not read the other responses, but I would talk to the people involved in at your church and tell them exactly how you feel (humbly, calmly, and nice ofcourse) But I really think they need to know how you feel about how they acted during your emergency when you really needed their assistance.

 

How is your ds now? Is he in pain? I will pray for this situation! Please let us know how things turn out please!

[Sasharowan]

My daughter broke her front permanent tooth playing baseball a couple of years ago. It completely broke in half at an angle running from the top next to the other front tooth to the bottom next to the secondary tooth there. We couldn't find the broken piece in the grass. It was a couple of days before we saw the dentist. They put on some sort of bonding stuff that looks like tooth. You have to really look close to see the difference and she has had no problem with eating, even apples.

[Pajama Mama]

In this day and age, it should be fine. In the mid 80s, I fell down a flight of stairs and knocked out my 4 bottom teeth. I also broke the top 2 teeth. The bottom teeth were transplanted back into my mouth(only lasted 4-5 yrs). The top teeth were repaired.

 

My only recommendation is to make sure your son sees a dentist regularly-at least once a year. The repair job on my top teeth had chipped on the back of the teeth. I couldn't see it so I was clueless. When I finally went to a dentist as an adult, I had cavities in both teeth. They drilled both teeth down a lot and put caps on them. Regular dentist screenings would have helped me avoid a lot of discomfort.

[~Kirsten~]

Just bumping to let you know I'm praying for you and your son today! Check back in when you have a chance to let us know how it went! :grouphug:

[Mejane]

My husband broke off his two front teeth several years ago. I'd say the most important thing we did was to spend the time to find a really good oral surgeon who was versed in the latest technology. We have seen too many people with false teeth that look like chiclets. Husband's veneers look totally natural down to matching the shade of his real teeth. He's had them for almost ten years without any problem. It was undoubtedly more expensive, but totally worth it.

 

Btw, I'd be mad, too. When a hs friend fell and knocked his teeth out at a function, we all ran around like chickens with no head trying to help. Those people stink.

Edited May 3, 2010 by Mejane

[mom2abcd]

Oh, strider. I am sorry to hear this. This was a secret fear of mine as a kid and as a new mom. It's wonderful to hear real life stories of people doing great with the repairs they have had done.

 

I wonder if the man at your church hadn't heard about the milk thing. I think there are many people who are clueless about it.

 

It sounds like many people have gone through this and manage just fine. I know it relieves my mother-heart just in case it ever happens to one of ours.

 

But yeah-- if it happens to someone else, I will be running for milk and advising them to see an emergency dentist rather than the ER.

 

It might be worth writing a letter to the administration of those hospitals so they can train their staff to be more helpful in this type of circumstance.