Are temporary fillings safe for children?

Question

Hi doctor,

I brought my 8-year-old son to the dentist because he broke his front tooth (two-thirds of a tooth is gone, and one-third of a tooth with the root is still there).

We went to a clinic. The first dentist came, and he said this required root canal treatment so that he would refer us to another dentist. He said the pulp is exposed, so he would do some treatment first to prevent it from getting worse. It looks like he was using something (which I do not know what it is) to fill my son's broken tooth. But in the middle of the treatment, my son cried a lot, and the dentist needed to stop the treatment. So the treatment is stopped in the middle. We left the clinic for a walk to calm my son down.

An hour later, we came back to the clinic to continue the treatment. The first dentist who treated my son was not there. The second dentist came. He said it was hard to fill the hole, so he said he would use clay to fill the hole temporarily. The second treatment is done. So now his tooth is covered by something that looks like clay.

Answer 1

Hi,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

I understand your concern. They would not have intentionally left anything inside the child's tooth if they stopped the treatment in the middle. But the second dentist has just filled the tooth with a temporary filling material which means the treatment is incomplete and your child still is prone to infection. So what I would suggest is that whichever dentist you are visiting next, please get an X-ray (IOPA - intraoral periapical x-ray) done for that tooth. So the dentist will also get an idea of what to do next. Because you said it is the front tooth, and it is likely to be a permanent central incisor, not a primary tooth. So definitely requires a root canal treatment and capping if needed or bulk filling after root canal treatment. The treatment is incomplete, so do not worry about the material used because usually, it is unethical to leave any foreign object like a file inside; it might be just the temporary filling they did. So no immediate threat, but because the child's fractured tooth is left incomplete, better to save that tooth by getting an IOPA (IOPA - intraoral periapical X-ray) done at your nearest dentist and then the root canal treatment. If you have further queries, I will gladly answer.

Answer 2

Hi,

Welcome back to icliniq.com.

I think the medication would be a calcium hydroxide base or a gutta percha point used for the root canal treatment. But you said the treatment was incomplete, so only an X-ray can decide that. But as such, it is not a threat, so do not be anxious. Have they given you any doctor notes, like the second dentist must have written something like a prescription or an analysis of the treatment?

If there is anything written in the doctor's notes or prescription, it would be more useful to predict. And I would like to know if your child still complains of pain after the temporary filling.

Are temporary fillings safe for children?

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