Posted by writeradmin
I have an eight year old who is accident prone. He fell and broke a tooth almost in half. His dentist did dental bonding but that broke off in about a week. He’s still too young for it to be capped. Would snap on smile be good for him?
Ashley
Dear Ashley,
I am not going to recommend Snap-on Smile in the case of your son. Even if it would be a good idea, your son’s tooth would still be left broken. There are ways to permanently repair this which I will go over in a moment. First, I want to clarify why it is not a great idea to use Snap-on Smile.
- Because it snaps over his other teeth, ti will be bulky and can lead to speech issues as he compensates
- It’s removable. Now you may have the most responsible eight year old on the planet, but I’m guessing even with that he will end up losing the appliance.
- He is in the mixed dentition stage, which means that he has both adult and baby teeth. His bite will change every few months. That will change the fit of the appliance in his mouth. Unfortunately, this will likely lead to damaging the incoming adult teeth.
- He will need to take it off and brush after every meal to keep his teeth healthy. I don’t know many 8 year olds able to do this. Some adults struggle with it.
Dental bonding was the right repair for this. If it broke, it is because the dentist did not know how to do it in a way that wouldn’t be impacted by his bite. You will need to go to an expert cosmetic dentist for this repair and not just your average family dentist. It will probably cost more than what your dentist charged for the bonding, but it will be a more secure repair and will actually still be less than what you’d end up with using snap-on smile.
This blog is brought to you by Lafayette, LA Dentist Dr. John Theriot.