OT Damn, broke a tooth! Options

[seanery]

Hey doc, what do I do?
Broke the top farthest back tooth while eating a french fry. Missed the morning session at Putnam this morning.
A friend told me I'll need to get it pulled. I don't know if that's true, but the inside face is basically gone, the top is mostly there though. She told me the inside of the tooth isn't protected and will rot and hurt like hell if not pulled.

Izat true?

Thanks in advance.

[bperry]

I had a similar problem over a year ago.
A piece of my tooth broke off while eating a sandwich.
I ended up with a crown. I chose porcelain rather than gold.
It looks nicer - can't really tell its in there. But porcelain is much
harder to fit properly and it costs alot more. Mine was about $1300
1 year ago.

In my case the tooth was perfect other than one of the points
sheered off. Once the dentine is exposed, you have to get a crown.
(Don't get the tooth pulled)
The filling technology isn't there yet to cover this up or repair this
type of problem.
Since I had so much tooth still left, I spent over an hour in the chair
while the dentist grinded down my almost perfect tooth down
to a "nub" for the crown.

Since mine didn't hurt I actually wen't about 6 months after the break
(till the next dentist visit) before I got the crown. I didn't actually know
it was as bad as it was.

All you can do is bend over and open your wallet.

--- bill