Does it make sense to try to save a baby tooth?!
Question: My son is 8 years old. He has a severe cavity in his left top back molar. The dentist stated he can do one of two things---he can either extract the tooth, and insert spacers to prevent his other teeth from shifting until the permanent tooth grows in around age 11, or he can crown the tooth and almost do a "root canal" type procedure which gives us about a 50/50 chance that the tooth can be saved. I'm wondering if it's worth putting my little boy through that procedure for a baby tooth. What do you think? Extract? Or put him and myself through a costly dental procedure?
Answers: My son is 8 years old. He has a severe cavity in his left top back molar. The dentist stated he can do one of two things---he can either extract the tooth, and insert spacers to prevent his other teeth from shifting until the permanent tooth grows in around age 11, or he can crown the tooth and almost do a "root canal" type procedure which gives us about a 50/50 chance that the tooth can be saved. I'm wondering if it's worth putting my little boy through that procedure for a baby tooth. What do you think? Extract? Or put him and myself through a costly dental procedure?
I'm assuming this is his 2nd baby molar? That would be 5th from the midline. If it was a 1st baby molar (4th from the midline), then I would just extract and wait to see if there was any forward movement of the 2nd baby molar.
If it's a 2nd baby molar then it would be better to extract and place a spacer. A "root canal" procedure in a baby tooth is at best 50%, and if it does fail, then you'll still have to extract and place a spacer anyway. But with the adult tooth not coming thru till he's 12, then the 1st ADULT molar at the very back (6th from the midline) would move forward UNLESS you had the spacer.
extract and spacer
it is extremely crucial to either save the tooth through a restoration or to have a space maintainer put in. If not, then that space will become occupied by the tooth behind it that will eventual drift towards the front of mouth in the open space. When it is time for the permanent tooth (a premolar) to come in, there will be no room and he will have crowding issues. The general rule of thumb is if you take something out (a tooth) something should replace it. You have the make the decision whether you want to have him in braces due to crowding issues later in his life or make him uncomfortable for a little while with a restoration or extraction. I hope you choose either the restoration or the space maintainer if the cavity is really that bad. Good luck.
I would go for the extraction and spacer. My daughter had a baby tooth crowned at 5 and it ended up needing a pulpectomy a year later. Just leaving the tooth as is would mean some pretty bad pain for your boy who knows when. Usually on a Friday night when the dentist is closed for the weekend. Extract and spacer for sure!
Without seeing the xray it is hard to say. If the dentist is giving it a 50/50 though, I would go with the extraction/spacer. I would not base your decision on what the little guy would need to go through though. Most 8 year olds do just fine (as long as their parents aren't worried for them...then they usually notice that their parent is scared and they get scared too =] ).