Can Anything Fix My Daughter’s Bonding?

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I have a ten year old daughter. She is very sensitive to the way her peers view her, as most children are at that age. She took a pretty bad fall on her bike. The majority of her two front teeth were destroyed. It’s like she has the frame, but much of the center is gone. I took her to the pediatric dentist right away and he thought the best solution would be to do dental bonding. The results are absolutely aweful. The front of her teeth are lumpy. The color is off. The teeth are also shorter than they used to be and uneven. I feel I’ve made a horrible mistake with this repair and should have gone a different direction. I spoke to him about it and now he is suggesting dental crowns. I don’t want her to have to wear crowns her whole life. Is there any way to fix this? My daughter cries every day.

Amanda

Dear Amanda,

Do not let him put crowns on your daughter’s front teeth. First, the pulp of a ten-year-old is very close to the surface, making it much more likely to get damaged. This would then require an even more complicated treatment with a root canal and posts. Second, her teeth are going to continue to erupt. This will separate the dental crown from the margin both making it obvious she has fake teeth stuck on there as well as increasing the chances for decay in the between area.

While your dentist was on the right track with the type of repair, he just didn’t have the cosmetic skills to pull it off. This is one of the most advanced cases in cosmetic dentistry because it has to be done free-hand. Your dentist would have needed to take extensive post-doctoral training in this procedure to be able to do it well. Very few pediatric dentists have this training.

This can look beautiful and can be repaired. What you need is an expert cosmetic dentist who also enjoys working with children. The best cosmetic dentists are AACD accredited (which is different from membership). They will be able to make the repair look natural, as seen in the image above. Depending on where you live, you may have to travel to find one. Accreditation is not easy to acheive and very few dentists reach that level. For example, Dr. Weber is the only AACD accredited dentist in Franklin, TN. To find ones close to you, there is a search tool on the accd.com website. Just make sure you check that you’re looking for an accredited dentist.

This blog is brought to you by Franklin, TN Cosmetic Dentist Dr. Christopher Weber.