A broken tooth below gum line

[Anna 10]

Hello

Last week whilst I was eating dinner I heard a nasty crack noise as I was bitting into a piece of bread and my right molar tooth started to hurt soon afterwards. I saw my dentist the next day and he said that the tooth is broken below the gum line and needs to be removed surgically. I am really scared of even having fillings and the thought of having a difficult extraction petrifies me. Am I right in assuming that all teeth broken below the gum have to be removed? If the tooth has to be removed, can I be asleep for the procedure?

[Dr Mohsen J. Esfahani]

A tooth thats broken below the gum line, might still be restorable depending on how deep the fracture line is. If the fracture line is just below the gum, then the tooth can be saved with a root canal and a post-crown.

If the fracture line is very deep, the tooth might need to be removed and replaced perhaps with an implant. On some occasions, crown lengthening can help save a tooth thats a borderline case.