do we need a root canal done for a chipped fronth tooth?

Question

my son had a nasty fall and shook up 3 front teeth pretty bad. 1 tooth is chipped. The doctor has put a stent for 3 weeks. My son is 9 yrs old. do we need to do a root canal for the chipped tooth and will we be able to salvage his original teeth. Can we cap the chipped tooth .

Answer 1

If the chip reached the nerve of the tooth, or just almost reached the nerve, a root canal is in order. I'm sure they can cap it and your son will still have a beautiful smile.

TX Mom Veteran of I can't remember how many root canals and crowns.

Answer 2

My front tooth was chipped when I was 14, and went with the root canal and cap route. If I had a choice, I would have kept the tooth. As your son gets older (20's) the gumline will recede up the tooth, but will stop on the capped tooth. It's not the end of the world, but when he smiles or expose his front teeth there will be a noticeable unevenness in his teeth. Plus it's really hard to match the color of front teeth, at least that's what my dentist said. He actually wanted to cap both front teeth. Hope this helps.

Answer 3

I had both front teeth chipped. They will only need to do a root canal if the nerves are dead. My nerves were still good so they just bonded my teeth. Eventually the bonding fell off (after about 6 years) and I decided that I would rather have crowns. They sanded my teeth down but my nerve is still there and I still have feeling. It really just all depends had bad the chip is.

Answer 4

You probably will need a root canal.
Depending on how much damage was done, you may be able to cap the tooth.
Your dentist knows better then anyone on Yahoo though.
Good luck.

Answer 5

Depends on the damage! If it exposed the nerve, or is too close to the nerve, probably. But plenty of people have chipped teeth and you can get a veneer to cover the damage.