In this, the second of this 2-part blog, Dr Ope Sodeinde discusses the elements that must be considered when making decisions on dental treatments of this nature. As we saw in part 1, if the decay/fracture does not extend to the bone, the treatment is very simple but when it does, the options are:

• Crown lengthening surgery and a new crown. A root canal treatment is frequently required as well.
• Replacement with a dental implant or a bridge (if appropriate).

As part of this dental treatment, we carried out crown lengthening surgery and root canal treatment. Although we are confident that the tooth is currently healthy, the longevity of the tooth is currently uncertain but the patient was extremely happy with the dental treatment she received to help save their tooth.

Very careful consideration of a patient’s bite is supremely important in all aspects of dentistry. Clenching and grinding our teeth when we sleep is extremely common and (like this patient) many of do not know that we are clenching/grinding until we start breaking teeth/crowns and bridges.

This excellent patient was referred by a colleague 2 years ago for dental implants and he managed to fracture them during the first COVID19 lockdown in the UK. We therefore decided to replace all his upper teeth with dental implants (Dr Ope Sodeinde), braces in the lower jaw and dental implants to replace the lower back teeth.

Although we had extensive discussions about whether a 72-year old needed this extent of treatment, I am really glad that the patient and my referrer agreed to have this extensive treatment because the video shows that the patient managed to fracture his temporary implant bridge (very very rare indeed) within 3 weeks. I am so glad that the team at London Dental Specialists are able to carry out such complicated treatment with ease and we look forward to showing you the final results.

This patient referred herself to see me complaining about the appearance of her lower front teeth and the general colour of her teeth. On further investigation revealed that she did not like the alignment and colour of her teeth.

The clinical examination revealed that the two teeth that she really hated had severe gum disease and that her teeth were darker than usual. In this situation, after teeth whitening (to improve colour), the two treatment options are:

1. Braces with our specialist orthodontist to align the teeth.
2. Extraction of the two teeth she hated, porcelain veneers and dental implants.

Our patient chose option 2 and the treatment took 4 months to complete