# Dental injury



## cestfacile (Dec 17, 2011)

I'm not actually a mountain biker (or American!), but I've struggled to find anywhere to talk about my injury - so thank you for letting me be here!

I just wondered whether any of you have been through what I've been through - in late October I was cycling to the station to go to work, stupidly not wearing my helmet (which I normally do, but I guess I got cocky) but a new hat I'd recently bought. As I came down the hill to the station, the wind blew up, the hat started coming off and I instinctively put my hand up.

The bike wobbled and next thing I knew I was lying in the road, having been smashed in the face and mouth - we later realised by my own handlebar! I lost three of my front lower teeth, badly broke two front upper, badly chipped a front lower and chipped another top. I also took a layer of skin off the area above your top lip and sliced open my lower lip somehow, and have been left with a lump in my lip and a scar running up the inside of my mouth. Having had no more than a tiny filling pre-accident, I've been through the mill - had to have extractions, root canals, implant surgery, you name it...

I've also got severe whiplash as there was nothing for my head to be supported by - this is getting better with time and physio but I've still got a way to go and am still banned from anything other than walking for another month or two. I realise I am very lucky not to be paralysed, to have cracked or broken something in my back or to have incurred more than minute external scarring, but I'm still coming to terms with it all physically and emotionally.

Anyone been through this at all? It seems a pretty random injury - most people don't smash themselves in the mouth like I did!


----------



## mackt (Jan 27, 2008)

Hi cestfacile, sorry to hear about your crash and injuries

This is my line of work and as you suggested it's not that common to sustain dental injuries - but it's all about how you went down and what you hit. I just did ribs and collarbone - face and teeth fine.

I have a degree of paranoia about losing teeth if I crash (but I don't wear a mouthguard for rides) - as I know what you have to go through to get it all fixed as you are discovering!

Usually a face plant type impact ends up with broken/avulsed top teeth and a degloving injury where the gums are torn away from the jaw bones and half the trail gets stuck under the soft tissue - it sounds like your handle bar did most of the injury by a direct impact.

The problem with hitting tarmac is the cheese grater effect which your upper lip has experienced - at least faces heal fast.

Implants are an excellent option now, because replacing lower teeth in the past didn't work very well with partial dentures.

The lump in your lip should soften up over the next 12 months.

So if you get on a bike again will it be with a full face helmet?


----------



## cestfacile (Dec 17, 2011)

Hi Mack, thanks for your good thoughts!

Yes, I think I was rather unlucky. I just couldn't get my hands down in time as I have managed to previously because of the speed and so on. I'm not surprised you're paranoid - I have always been too, but I've been lucky in the past... it's just a long slog and a lot of money!

I had the broken top teeth - as you'll see from the pictures below - and avulsed my lower teeth from the root up, which made my implantologist surmise they were baby teeth as normally he would expect them to snap, rather than go completely, but nobody else has ever told me that, though I do have other baby teeth further back in my mouth which, touch wood, are pretty solid!

Would it have been worse if the tarmac had hit me, do you think? I'm assuming it would have, and infection might have been more of a problem. It's amazing - I sadly don't have any pics from early on in my recovery, but I'll post what I have from post-filler, post-face wounds dying down.

Yes, implants are meant to be the best thing, aren't they? Just got to cross my fingers I'm part of the 95% who have success with them, though I assume most of the 5% who fail are smokers?

Good to know about the lump - is a real irritant, and still haven't got full feeling back, though dentist assures me I will. Was quite lucky - when we went to the dentist after getting released from the hospital, the emergency dentist did not know what to do with my bleeding, broken face at all, so referred me to her colleague, who turned out to have previously been a maxfax, so au fait with facial trauma! Very lucky.

I'm not sure about the full face helmet but maybe a mouthguard! And will definitely go back to squeaking my way down hills...

Here are the pics I have of the dental situation at present:


----------



## mackt (Jan 27, 2008)

Nice pics

You did bang yourself up good!

The lowers will look pretty sweet once you get the final crowns on - but the temporary bridges hold on pretty well if you don't open beer bottles with them.

But looks like you have a bit more time in a dental chair yet.

If you are a smoker they tend to fail - so you shouldn't have a problem there.

Mental note - take impression for mouthguard at work  Nahh - Universe + bit of a bad landing = random event.


----------



## osmarandsara (Jun 26, 2006)

I have never have had an accident or trauma to my mouth because of mountain biking.....BUT I still wear a mouthguard especially for XC/AM riding where wearing a full-face helmet would be too hot....

In the 10 years I've been riding, I have only seen one other rider wearing one.....so it definitely is not very common....

The reason I chose to do it is I have spent considerable $$$ on cosmetic dental work (crowns, etc.) and I want to protect my investment........

I attach my mouthguard to the chin-straps on my helmet............its easy to remove it to get a sip of water from my camelbak and it won't fall off


----------



## cestfacile (Dec 17, 2011)

Thanks Mac! I did indeed... Can't wait for the final stuff but know I have to be patient. The temp bridge is doing really well - I'm trying to be careful - and it's not that noticeable to those who don't know what I've done  

Yeah, I've got a bit more to go - got the fitting for the final implant bridge, then the final procedure in late March and then late April. Got to have white filling or whatever it is in to build up my chipped lower tooth and chipped upper tooth, and the top two broken ones need to be crowned at some point. But I guess they don't want to do everything at once! 

Yeah, totally random event, but I think I might, I don't want to risk it with stuff that cost me so much. Will see how I feel when I get back on!

Osmar and Sara - that's really interesting, that's kind of why I would think about it too. Do you feel peace of mind wearing it? I definitely wouldn't go for a full-face, as I'm not a MTBR! Would look a bit weird...


----------



## JimInSF (Oct 30, 2010)

I wear my Invisalign retainers, normally only required at night (I'm past the full time use stage), whenever I'm riding off road for this reason... not much of a bother except that I don't drink colored beverages without removing them first and then rinsing with water. Worth it IMHO.


----------



## osmarandsara (Jun 26, 2006)

cestfacile said:


> Osmar and Sara - Do you feel peace of mind wearing it?...


I wouldn't say I feel peace of mind......because once while I was wearing it I managed to crash and I broke my leg....but my teeth made it without a scratch......

Another reason I like to wear it is because once I heard about a freak accident where a mountain biker crashed and somehow actually bit his own tongue off....


----------



## electrik (Oct 22, 2009)

I feel like this thread is a Francis Bacon painting.

It is shocking and hard to come to terms with getting badly injured while doing such a normal thing, but what're you going todo... stop riding? Bah. 

You seem to be ok - maybe a little shook-up from paying the dentist all that money! 

Please wear your lid, they're dorky but the can work for you.


----------



## WarBoom (Dec 13, 2011)

Mouth guards arsnt as rare as you think. I wear a mouth guard anytime I am on a dirtbike, quad or mnt bike because when I was 11 I caught a hockey puck with my teeth and spot 4 uppers and 3 lowers onto the ice. And excellent dentist was able to reinsert and save all but one of my top front teeth where he put in an implant. And since then it has broken or degraded 4 times and just recently the bone degraded to such a point they had to remove the entire implant, seed it with cadaver bone, and let it heal. And in the meantime I don't have a front tooth until February and half to wear a retainer like device with a fake tooth on it lol. So I wear a mouth guard to protect about $50k of dental work over 13 years.


----------



## cestfacile (Dec 17, 2011)

Wow, WarBoom, nightmare! That's amazing they managed to save all of those teeth - unfortunately the two I avulsed were lost to the road as nobody thought to try and find them (there was a lot of blood and screaming, which is probably why!). 

That's bad news about the implant breaking/degrading - I am crossing my fingers that I'll be one of the 95% success rate and be able to keep it for life, I don't even want to think about the prospect of it not working...

osmarandsara - Haha, but that is kind of peace of mind, because your teeth were okay! Bad luck on the leg, hope it's all fixed now? I'll definitely be getting a guard - pre accident I swam, cycled, did yoga and played football, and I definitely don't want to risk doing the latter without *something*.

electrik - Ha, it is a bit! Coming to terms with it is definitely tough, I was a complete emotional wreck before Christmas! I feel like I'm starting to get there, but how I'll feel when I get back on the bike is another matter. I've asked a friend to come over and ride with me the first time to help with any shakiness. My mother would like me to never ride again, I suspect, but I do love it so, and I don't think I'll ever have that kind of accident again...


----------



## mtaviator (Dec 11, 2011)

I broke the bottom half of my two front top teeth off (and broke my upper jaw) falling off a bmx bike as a young teenager. Ended up with root canals and crowns. 25 years later, and it's all good. 

Good luck.


----------



## cestfacile (Dec 17, 2011)

Thought I'd post again as I've just (this afternoon!) had the final bridge put on my implants (had the surgery about 4 months ago, which was awfully painful, but had to be done!). I've also had a root canal and some white filling done on the chipped and broken teeth. Gums are pretty sore at present but I am reliably assured they'll settle down. Although obviously I'd rather have my old teeth (sob) back, I have had amazing dentists helping me along the way and I think they've done a really good job.


----------



## teamhaymaker (Mar 21, 2012)

Ive knocked out my front teeth 4 times now.
Costing me a fortune. 
I ned to learn to get my hands out in front of me


----------



## SoWal_MTBer (Jan 4, 2012)

cestfacile said:


> Thought I'd post again as I've just (this afternoon!) had the final bridge put on my implants (had the surgery about 4 months ago, which was awfully painful, but had to be done!). I've also had a root canal and some white filling done on the chipped and broken teeth. Gums are pretty sore at present but I am reliably assured they'll settle down. Although obviously I'd rather have my old teeth (sob) back, I have had amazing dentists helping me along the way and I think they've done a really good job.


Awesome! Turned out great. Congrats on getting through it all.

I wear a full-face helmet anytime I'm on the trail - even when the trails aren't very technical. You just never know. I'm in Florida, where the heat index gets extremely high, but the extra protection to not only my teeth, but the rest of my face is totally worth it to me. I've seen quite a few riders face plant recently.


----------



## WarBoom (Dec 13, 2011)

Just wreaked bad yesterday, I put my hands out and dislocated 4 fingers on my right hand and I stopped my forward progress by using my helmet and then my face to stop.
I actually felt a rock grind down my mouth guard... So glad I had it in


----------

