Hi Barb,
Sounds like you have been in the dental chair alot and have had some exstensive dental treatment!

I always encourage my patients to ask questions so they become better informed on what is happening to their teeth. I also feel that it is equally important that they know and understand what their treatment options are and why or why not those options may be limited. Children have different treatment options compared to adults because they are still in the growing stage and may or may not have all of their adult teeth yet. Generally, we've lost all of our baby (primary) teeth and gotten our adult teeth by the age of 12-13. Some people can lose their teeth earlier and some later. The wisdom teeth generally do not come in until around 17-21 years of age unless they are impacted in the jawbone.

Your son was fortunate when he broke his front tooth that he didn't injure the nerve causing the tooth to die. The restoration that they placed on it is called a Composite Bonding. It is the same tooth colored material that is used to fill other teeth after a cavity is removed. The acid etch that you speak of is a Phosphoric Acid that is applied to the prepped tooth to help bond the filling material. The tooth colored composite material is then placed over the etched surface in layers and a curing light is used to secure each layer. The life span of this type of filling material is about 7-10 years. After that time, the edges of the filling begin to break down and leak allowing bacteria to get underneath the material. The actual filling may look ok in the mirror, but clinically under the dental light, we can see the breakdown along the edges. In our office, we take pictures of the patients teeth with an intra-oral camera so we can show the patient a close up shot of what we see. These close up photos look alot different than what we see in our bathroom mirror!

The temporary bridge that you describe is called a Removable Partial Denture. It replaces missing teeth with false teeth that are attached to a wire frame that sometimes hooks around other teeth. These can be made to accomodate missing teeth on just one side of the mouth or both sides of the mouth at the same time on either the upper or lower arch. Actually, they come in a variety of sizes and shapes to accomodate various dental situations.

Alot of people have misconceptions about root canal and what it actually is. During a root canal, the inside of the roots (canals) are cleaned out with special instruments in an attempt to remove the infected nerve material that once use to supply the nutrients to the tooth. These canals are then somewhat disinfected and a filling material is placed in each canal to replace where the nerves were. The root of the tooth is not removed, it remains intact. The down side to this procedure is that it is not possible to remove all of the infected nerve material from inside the root for several reasons but one main reason is because there are nerves also located in tiny microscopic areas called dentin tubules or accessory canals. Because there is no way to access these tiny areas, the nerve material inside of them which is no longer being supplied any nutrients, becomes necrotic and basically causes the tooth to be chronically infected. Although the only alternative to a root canal is extraction, science and logic tells us, it is never healthy for the immune system to continuously fight an infection especially in people who already have compromised immune systems.

I found it very interesting how you understood the concept "that If teeth get infected, they can cause health problems throughout your entire body". You are absolutely correct!!

I hope Ali gets the dental care that she needs soon and I'm sure she will be just fine.

Bryanna