Crown fallen out - put my mind at rest

[DancingK]

To give you a quick background it took me about 10 years to go back to the dentist (roughly 2/3 years ago).

When I plucked up the courage to go back I was told I'd need root canal treatment on one of the teeth... I dealt with my anxiety and went ahead with it, luckily the dentist I had then had caught it early so it was a painless procedure.

Since then I had a crown fitted on this very back tooth.

Here's the problem

Not long after (maybe a few months) the crown was fitted the front part of my tooth broke off, it felt as thought the crown had broken too but I couldn't really tell... since then the crown was still in place but I always felt like it would fall out.

Low and behold, last Saturday I was tucking into a potatoe when I felt something hard and a gaping hole in my mouth

I have called a new dentist (original one left profession) to have it checked out on Tuesday, my question after all my waffle is this, has anyone had this happen to them ? What sort of fixes and treatments do they offer ? I know every patient is different but it'd be nice to put my mind at rest knowing what options might arise.

Also where the crown has come off and the broken tooth is quite sharp and digging into my gum the gum seems to be a bit darker around the broken part of the tooth, is this normal? I thought it might be bruising, it's quite dark.

I did try to take a photo but can't seem to get my camera to focus on the tooth.

Any help, stories of similar stories (with success) would be greatly appreciated.

*Washes mouth with salt water*

 

[brit]

I'm not a dentist but I guess they would want to remove any new decay if any, build up and reshape the tooth and fit a new crown, should be a pretty similar experience to the last time.

If the root canal didn't look like it had been optimally done, they may want to retreat it or refer you for retreatment to an endodontist and then repeat step one above.

If the tooth were beyond repair - unlikely - I expect you'd be looking at extraction and implant.

Cost is probably the worst aspect of this situation assuming a good dentist.

 

[DancingK]

Thanks, it's always nice and helpful to know what's likely to be expected before going in that dreaded chair