• Dental Phobia Support

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New here, need some advice.

S

SpaceMonkey

Junior member
Joined
May 29, 2012
Messages
3
I'm absolutely terrified of going to the dentist and for that i've avoided them for years and now i'm paying for it.

A few months ago i finally caved and went to the dentist and found out i needed a root canal. I was referred to a specialist and despite my anxiety went to see him. I didn't feel a thing during the procedure but unfortunately when attempting to clamp a guard in my mouth the dentist broke a piece of the tooth off. The reason why this is unfortunate is because they were unable to crown it due to not having enough tooth exposed. I was sent to another specialist for a crown lengthening (had nightmares about this the night before) after some xrays (and $100) i was told my wisdom tooth which is impacted is growing too close to the tooth to do a crown lengthening. So that left me with a decision. Either get the tooth extracted and be done with it OR have the wisdom tooth removed, the crown lengthening done and the crown put on. I have insurance but it's not great and all of the procedures scare the crap out of me especially the route of oral surgery so here are my questions:

If i have the tooth extracted is there a chance of my teeth shifting to fill the gap. The tooth is the #2 (last tooth on the top on the right side before the wisdom tooth). Also if i do have it extracted are there options for having the space filled and are those expensive options?

Is it really worth the trouble to have the wisdom tooth removed (which will require oral surgery) just to keep the broken tooth?

I know it's ultimately my choice but with my fears of the dentist i've found myself torn. I've let it go for months but it's starting to hurt so i cannot let it go any longer and i think i need to make a decision. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
 
It's a no-brainer really. If the wisdom tooth is in good condition, then let No2 go and wait for a bit.

An upper wisdom tooth will quite often drop into the space created by extracting No2 quite naturally, if it's in decent position then that would be the best way to go.
 
Well at the moment it's impacted. It has not come through yet, is there a chance it won't?
 
I also would like to know about what "SpaceMonkey" asked regarding a tooth shifting to fill the space left by an extraction. Is this what is called the "domino effect"? If you have a tooth extracted, is it inevitable that the ones next to it will become loose, or are "shifting" and "loosening" two different things? If a tooth "shifts" to fill a space, is it possible that it will be held in place well?
 
I also would like to know about what "SpaceMonkey" asked regarding a tooth shifting to fill the space left by an extraction. Is this what is called the "domino effect"? If you have a tooth extracted, is it inevitable that the ones next to it will become loose, or are "shifting" and "loosening" two different things? If a tooth "shifts" to fill a space, is it possible that it will be held in place well?


yes would also like to know this, it is what is making my decision so hard. I don't want to have to worry about my teeth forming gaps:confused:
 
I'm not a dentist but I had an adult tooth growing horizontaly in my jaw so it never pushed the baby tooth out. When I broke the baby tooth and had it taken out it wasn't long before the adult tooth started coming through. Now I don't know...maybe it was going to do that anyway but from my experience teeth can get themselves into the right place and my dentist has never mentioned any negative impacts on my other teeth.
 
I can only speak from my own experience, and considering my top teeth aren't straight anyway, it might not be the same for everybody. I had three adult premolars removed when I was much younger, no.4 on both sides at the top, and no.4 on the right hand side at the bottom. I think the original plot was to fit braces on the top teeth but this never happened and at the top, premolars no.5 on both sides have each swung in sideways, which is great because it gives the effect there are no gaps there! They are both healthy and rock solid; not loose in any way. At the bottom, where premolar 4 is absent, premolar 5 has closed right in, right up against the canine tooth with not a whisker of space between them, and again no problems. I don't know whether you'd get this gap-filling effect in people whose teeth were actually straight to start with! But there's definitely no looseness involved, in my experience...but a dentist would know more than me...just speaking here as I have found, in the hope it may be of some help and reassurance.
 
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