Discussion: Phil

Don't encourage him!

How did it break? In college, my molar broke all on its own. It was eventually (15 years later) root canaled and capped.

A face plant, perhaps? Will you need to start bringing a mouth protector to complement your gloves?

Nice that teeth are relatively easy to fix and continue to work well into old age if maintained.

I have bad teeth, many cavities over the years plus a couple of root canals. I broke off a corner of this tooth a week ago eating a piece of bread. This morning felt like a more substantial break (eating cereal), down deeper. Piece is still there but it has to be dealt with and I fear it will be far from easy. #31.

I had a similar problem 15 years ago. Did a lot of research and opted for extraction and implant. Has been completely trouble-free ever since. Work was done by a Swedish doc; they invented the procedure I believe. But there are many other opinions on the matter. Good luck.

#31 Swiss or US?

Ouch. Hope it wasn't wheaties that caused the damage.

#31 s indeed one of the numbers that exist in both the US and Swiss systems, but they are very, very different positions. Based on Peter's concerns, I'm thinking that it might be Swiss. If it were US 31, I would expect the remedy to be pretty straightforward.

If it were US 31, I would expect the remedy to be pretty straightforward.

US 31 is the next to last one on the lower right. Don't know what the Swiss system is.

And as far as "pretty straightforward" goes, it reminds me of the term "minor surgery", which is understood to be surgery done on someone else.

I'm not looking forward to any of this. It doesn't help that all my wisdom teeth are in rather bad shape.

In any case, back home now, appointment with a dentist (not my usual one, he's away for the week) at 8 tomorrow morning, see what the prognosis and the options are.

You've still got your wisdom teeth? Bad shape or not, I'd guess that most people your age don't have them any more. One of the options is extraction, which I can attest isn't so bad. It's also possible to replace it or cap it or whatever, though that's obviously more involved. But a professional opinion, presenting you with your options, is all that matters.

Neil, Nancy, and I were talking with Dr. Lauenstein at a recent wedding, and he was rather surprised when he heard what teeth I was having extracted. After some discussion, we realized that the confusion comes from a dramatic difference in the nomenclature. In the US, you open your mouth, and the teeth are numbered from 1 to 32 starting at the upper right wisdom tooth and proceeding clockwise. In Switzerland (and for all I know, maybe everywhere that uses the metric system) the first digit designates which quarter of the mouth the tooth is in (I think it's UR=1, UL=2, LR=3, LR=4), and the second digit starts at 1 for the center incisor and counts to 8 for the wisdom tooth. Thus the four wisdom teeth are 18, 28, 38, 48, and the lower right incisor is 31. A more sensible system, really.

JJ, I was eavesdropping that, so the comment was directed in your direction.

I just had my US31 pulled. I feel tons better a week after the procedure than I felt for months before it.

So what are you going to do now -- just leave a gap forever, or an implant, or…?

Probably an implant. My impression is that the only reason not to get one is financial. I have a few months of healing to do before I decide, so I'll make the decision then, probably mostly based on my job/dental insurance prospects.

I would guess that for you there is no reason not to get one.

I had US15 pulled, and they never even mentioned an implant. (There's no gap, because I had US16 pulled at the same time.) Seems like US18 isn't too useful at this point, next time I got to my regular dentist maybe it will get discussed.

Another argument for getting an implant is that it's possible for the neighboring teeth to start moving/leaning into the vacant space, thus shifting your other teeth out of alignment. That's what happened to me, so I needed braces to move everything back in place, and then have an implant put in.

I have an implant at US29. It's great and the procedure was easy. Wish all my teeth were implants - then no more crowns or root canals.