When I was a young teen, many moons ago, I fell in the basement and broke a front tooth. I had to have that tooth extracted; a root canal was done and a false tooth was then implanted on a post. The other front tooth must have suffered trauma; it died a slow natural death and turned sort of a dingy light brown.
Before I got out of the military I enquired about having a crown done, and after ensuring the tooth was in fact dead, the dentist put a false tooth over the old tooth. The other front false tooth was replaced at the same time so the two teeth would be the same colour and shape.
Well, some twenty plus years later and probably due to many head bumps by dogs, the tooth under the crown broke. It happened over a weekend. I thought on Friday evening it was loose but thought maybe I was imagining it but by Saturday, I could see it was definitely loose. I hoped it was just the crown coming off as I had that happen to one of my back crowns while a hygienist was cleaning my teeth. That was a simple procedure of having the dentist re-glue the crown back in.
I called first thing on Monday morning and my dentist's office was able to get me that very morning. Unfortunately, an X-ray showed the tooth was broken and could not be salvaged. It had to be removed. About a week later, I went in for a recheck and to have a scan done for a cosmetic retainer. That was a new experience, my dentist's office doesn't need to do impressions any more but they can do scans of your teeth.
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| Missing Front Tooth |
Now I wait for a consult to have an implant put in. My consult isn't until 25 Mar 2025; hopefully I'll get in earlier as they say there are always cancellations. In the meantime, I have an Invisalign retainer with a false tooth. It's only for cosmetic purposes though so I can't wear it to eat, fortunately I can wear it to drink.
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| Invisalign retainer |
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| Interim Front Tooth |
Given the time it takes to have an implant done, I think I might be going on this year's trip to Italy with the retainer. The trip isn't until end Sep 2025 so maybe the implant will be done by then but if I have to wait as long for the work to start on the implant as for the consult, maybe not. It's three to four months after the post is put in that they can finish putting in the implant. My dentist did put in artificial bone at the same time as he extracted the tooth so that might be a step that the dental surgeon doesn't have to do before the post can be put in.
