Hi mo,

Well........ I imagine you feel some relief because you still have your tooth. However, I'm sorry to hear that things didn't go as planned because you geared yourself up to have the tooth removed which really would have solved the problem.

Unfortunately, most fractures in a tooth cannot be seen clinically because they form internally within the tooth and can therefore only be found once the tooth is extracted and evaluated. If the fracture is large enough to cause a splintering of the tooth, then it can be seen on an xray and sometimes clinically as well. Generally a dentist will diagnose a fractured tooth based on the patients symptoms and radiographic history.

Unfortunately, I have seen many patients who have undergone apicos, even multiple apicos on one tooth. Basically they are done as a heroic effort to "retain", not cure, a diseased tooth. Most often they are done on patients who have not accepted the idea of losing their tooth yet.

Mo, the truth of the matter is that your tooth is not healthy. Irrelevant of what is done to it or the bone surrounding it, the tooth is not healthy. Because the procedure has already been done, I'm not going to go into anymore detail about that here because it would just upset you.

It is wise to have an xray of that area twice a year at your dental cleaning appointments to monitor any changes in that area of the bone .... or sooner if you develop any swelling, pimple on the gum, redness or pus coming from that area.

I hope you are not too uncomfortable and wish you the best of possible outcomes!!

Bryanna