The front tooth that stayed.
At 62, with a fractured front tooth and a failed root canal beneath it, extraction and an implant seemed inevitable. The patient asked for one more opinion first.
One tooth's journey, in four beats.
One recommendation: pull it.
A 62-year-old Redondo Beach patient with a fractured central incisor over an inadequately filled root canal. Another provider had reasonably recommended extraction and an implant.
The tooth had more to give.
The exam found sound root structure below the fracture, no infection at the tip, and enough tooth for a ferrule — the conditions where saving beats replacing.
Three phases, ninety minutes.
The old, void-riddled filling removed and the canal properly resealed; a fiber post bonded into the root for reinforcement; a composite core built up ready for the crown.
A year later, indistinguishable.
Crowned by her own dentist, the tooth matches its neighbor in color and contour — asymptomatic, stable bone, and a fraction of an implant's cost and timeline.
- ✦ Old gutta-percha removed with solvents and ultrasonics under magnification
- ✦ Canal re-instrumented, disinfected, and sealed with warm vertical compaction
- ✦ Post space prepared, keeping a 4–5mm apical seal
- ✦ Fiber post bonded adhesively — flexes with the tooth, unlike metal
- ✦ Composite core built with a 2mm ferrule for the crown
- ✦ Definitive crown at the patient's own dentist within weeks
What this case teaches.
More from the collection.
- The nine-year molar — Severe cracking that disrupted sleep with every accidental bite — treated once, bonded once, and pain-free every year since. This is what quality-oriented endodontics means.
- The original color, restored — A front tooth gray for years, whitened from the inside in one week — no crown, no veneer, no tooth reduction.
Told extraction is the only way?
Get the second opinion before the tooth is gone. Extraction is always available later; saving isn't.