Toddler Chipped Front Tooth

Arnold Layne

My 2 year old has a large chip on one of her front teeth. It basically looks like an inverted "V". My OH wants to take her to the dentist so that it can be fixed cosmetically. I think that it should be left the way it is as it is not affecting her in anyway, and besides, it will fall out in a couple of years.

What do others think? Has anyone taken their child to the dentist for this type of work?

shergar22

Arnold Layne wrote: »

My 2 year old has a large chip on one of her front teeth. It basically looks like an inverted "V". My OH wants to take her to the dentist so that it can be fixed cosmetically. I think that it should be left the way it is as it is not affecting her in anyway, and besides, it will fall out in a couple of years.

What do others think? Has anyone taken their child to the dentist for this type of work?

Just leave it. As you said, the child's tooth will fall out in a few years. I'd be very surprised if you could find any dentist who would do 'cosmetic' work on a two year old. The only work they would do would be on medical grounds, such as removing the tooth if it was driven up into the gum.
Imagine the difficulty in getting a two year old to sit still in a dentist's chair while a dentist is trying to fill a gap in a tooth!! Makes me shudder.

eimsRV

Hi Arnold,

Maybe bring her for a consultation to a dentist to see what the options are. But I think I would leave it alone.

I chipped my front tooth when I was about 8, it wasn't a milk tooth though! I had to get work done in the dentist, and every year for about 5 years the added bit would fall off. I'm now in my 30s, and I've a fear of dentists - and blame all the work I had to have done when I was younger. I'd imagine at 2 years of age, it would be very hard to get a toddler to stay still for long enough without sedation.

Hopefully by the time she is making her communion the tooth will have fallen out anyway!

Best of luck

January

As above, just bring her to make sure there's no damage to the root of the tooth as it can start to go black over time if there is.

Not sure any sane dentist would do cosmetic work on a two year old...

embee

My daughter tripped when she was 2.5, half of one of her wee canine teeth on the top row is discoloured as she chipped the tooth, made a right mess of her lip too, lots of bleeding and tears! She'll be 4 now in a week or so and I haven't brought her to the dentist as it's just cosmetic. It's gonna fall out soon enough and I'd only bring her if she was complaining of pain.

deisemum

I think there's no harm in getting it looked at by the community dentist (free) just to make sure it's not a big chip that could lead to other problems. At least phone and discuss it with them.

RosieJoe

My eldest chipped his front tooth off the bathroom sink (funnily enough he was about to brush his teeth).

We got it checked out to ensure it didn't damage the adult tooth beneath. Other than that I would never even dream of getting a cosmetic procedure done on a child.

As said, it will (like my son's) fall out and be replaced with a clean shiny one

we'llallhavetea_old

i'd definitely leave it, as everyone has said it will fall out anyway and you might just create future fears of the dentist

Arnold Layne

Thanks all. We are going to get the tooth checked out but will not do anything else unless absolutely necessary