Tooth Brittle

We had a patient today who presented with a tooth that was completely decapitated at the gum level. The nerves and blood vessels that nourished that tooth were dead. It was just not viable to resurrect that tooth even if we wanted to.

Under such circumstances, we would give all patients the following information for the purposes of facilitating an informed decision:

When you fold a fresh green leaf, it does so without any damage to the leave. However, if you try to fold a dead, brown leaf, it will crumble into many small pieces. The same applies to a dead or non-vital tooth. They are very brittle and difficult to extract in one piece. Often, a surgical procedure is required to completely remove such teeth.

The patient understood the analogy and consented to the removal of the tooth. The moment we applied the forceps to the dead tooth, it immediately crumbled. This process of forceps application and tooth crumbling repeated itself several times until the forceps had no more tooth structure was available for the forceps to grip. We had to switch to a surgical procedure to remove the tooth in several pieces. In the end, it took over 90 minutes to completely remove the tooth.

Thus, never wait until the tooth is so badly broken down before you seek treatment. It's very traumatic experience!