Treatment for cracked tooth? Help!?

Below are my symptoms that was diagnosed as cracked tooth on my first upper molar





1) No visible signs of cracks/tooth decay upon physical examination


2) X-rays do not show up anything unusual (for eg no abscess, no signs of


cracks, no tooth decay)


3) Pain when bite


4) Tooth is sensitive to cold


5) Light can only pass through half/one side of the molar (upon shining the luminous blue torch light,)





What are the alternative treatments other than root canal/crowning?

Treatment for cracked tooth? Help!?
I got a crown, and that tooth has been no problem!!





I have to say crown!
Reply:Mine happened back in the 50's when I was knocked off a bike. The only treatment then was an extraction and a small denture plate with 1 tooth on it.


Had that right up till 2 years ago when my dentist suggested crowning the aging, getting-to-be rather misshapen, teeth next to it and attaching a denture on a cantilevered bridge.


If you can afford it, an implant would probably be the best solution (around £3,000) but a crown in the region of £100 (if you have insurance covering the lab work) is the next best thing, I reckon.
Reply:That's a pretty good description that you give. Depending on how much the root canal is affected (how sensitive to cold it is), you may not need the root canal treatment. However I would still recommend a crown for sure... I know of no other good treatments for this kind of thing besides a crown. A basic rule of thumb regarding cold sensitivity on teeth: if you get cold on it, but then you take the cold off, and the tooth continues to be irritated... if the tooth continues to be irritated for 10 seconds or longer, that is often an indication that the tooth will need a root canal (usually at this point, the tooth just continues to get more and more sensitive until it turns into a toothache). If the tooth is irritated for less than 10 seconds, lots of times it will get better [For other readers, this is in regards to a cracked tooth without caries...don't use this rule of thumb for other types of cold sensitivity.]. This would be monitored over time. In your case, if cold sensitivity was borderline, my recommendation probably would be to do a temporary crown in to see if the sensitivity got better. If it did not, I would recommend a root canal. If it did get better I would just do the crown.





I suppose an alternate treatment would be a full coverage silver filling (amalgam), but even with this the crack could continue to propagate and you could still end up losing the tooth. And just so you know, there isn't a 100% guarantee that the crown will work... much depends on how far the crack has gone. The sooner you do the crown the better chance that the crack will not run all the way through the tooth in the long run. Best wishes.





PS the other answer is also correct...Extracting the tooth is an option. An implant may also be an option depending on the location and the amount of bone available.