Fillings, white crowns & root canal treatment
A pediatric dentist can assess your child’s teeth and explain appropriate restorative treatment options.
When decay has gone past what a toothbrush can undo, a pediatric dentist restores the tooth rather than removing it. That means a filling, a crown in stainless steel or tooth-coloured zirconia, or pulp therapy — a baby-tooth root canal — depending on how deep the decay has reached and how long that tooth still has to serve.
Is this your child?
Early decay is silent, which is why six-monthly checks find it first. Book sooner if you notice:
- Pain that arrives on its own, rather than only with something cold
- A child who wakes in the night holding their face
- Chewing that has quietly moved to one side of the mouth
- A dark spot, a hole, or a tooth that has chipped or broken
- A bubble or swelling on the gum above a tooth
- A newly erupted molar or front tooth that came through creamy, yellow-brown or rough
- A tooth that has darkened weeks or months after a knock
What the appointment involves
- 01The look, and the x-rayDecay between teeth and under the gum does not show from outside. A small digital x-ray settles how deep it has gone before anything is decided.
- 02NumbingLocal anaesthetic first. If your child is anxious, nitrous oxide can go on before the injection rather than after it.
- 03Decay out, tooth rebuiltA thin rubber sheet isolates the tooth — most children find it reassuring once it is on. The decayed structure is removed and the tooth restored with a filling, a crown, or pulp therapy and a crown, depending on what is underneath.
- 04The bite checkThe restoration is adjusted until your child bites down normally, and an x-ray confirms the result where one is needed.
Filling, crown, or pulp therapy
A filling is enough while there is sound tooth left to hold it. Once decay has taken more than about a third of the tooth, or reached several surfaces, or the tooth has fractured, a filling has little to grip and a crown is the more durable answer.
Crowns come in two forms. A stainless steel crown is pre-formed, crimped to fit and cemented in one visit; it is the more forgiving of the two in a young child and very rarely fails. A zirconia crown is tooth-coloured, but it cannot be crimped, so it needs roughly 30 to 40 per cent more of the tooth reduced and twenty to thirty minutes longer in the chair. For a front tooth your child will show for the next six to ten years, that trade is usually worth making. For a back molar nobody sees, usually not. Many children end up with one of each.
Pulp therapy comes in when decay has reached the nerve. A pulpotomy removes the inflamed pulp from the crown of the tooth and treats what remains in the roots; a pulpectomy removes all of it. Either way the tooth is capped afterwards. Baby-tooth root canals are filled with a material that dissolves over time, so the root can still resorb and the tooth still comes out on schedule.
How long, and how well it holds
A simple filling takes twenty to thirty minutes. A stainless steel crown takes thirty to forty; a zirconia crown fifty to seventy. Pulp therapy on a single tooth runs to forty-five or sixty minutes. Several teeth at once usually means sedation rather than one very long sitting.
Outcomes are good. A pulpotomy succeeds in roughly 85 to 95 per cent of cases, a pulpectomy in 75 to 85, an indirect pulp cap in 90 to 95 — success meaning the tooth works, without pain or infection, until it falls out on its own. The tooth is reviewed four to six weeks afterwards, then at the usual six-month checks.
The first day or two
Most of this is about the hours while the numbness wears off.
- Nothing to eat until the numbness has gone — children bite a numb lip or cheek without feeling it
- No hard or crunchy food for twenty-four hours
- Mild soreness for a day or two is normal; age-appropriate paracetamol or ibuprofen covers it
- Brush the tooth as usual, gently, and floss around a new crown daily — the join collects food
- Tell us about swelling, pain that persists, or a bubble appearing on the gum, rather than waiting for the review
- Come to the four-to-six-week check. It is how we know the tooth has settled
Who you would see
Dr. Mustafa AbdallaSpecialist Pediatric Dentist & Dental Director
Dr. Shaima BuhamerSpecialist Pediatric Dentist
Dr. Sharifa AlHajSpecialist Pediatric Dentist
Dr. Sara Atif MustafaSpecialist Pediatric Dentist
Every doctor consults in English and Arabic.
Why treat a baby tooth that is going to fall out anyway?
Because it is not going anywhere soon. Lower front teeth go at six or seven, upper front at seven or eight, but the back molars — the ones that get most of the cavities — stay until ten, eleven, sometimes twelve. A cavity in a baby molar at four means that tooth still has six to eight years of work ahead of it, holding the space for the permanent tooth behind it.
Will a silver crown show when my child smiles?
On a back molar, no — nobody sees a second molar. On a front tooth, yes, and that is exactly when a tooth-coloured zirconia crown is worth the extra preparation and chair time.
Can a crown damage the permanent tooth underneath?
No. The crown is cemented to the baby tooth only; the permanent tooth forming below is separate and untouched. When it is ready it dissolves the baby tooth’s roots as normal, and the baby tooth comes out with the crown still on it. Leaving decay untreated is the thing that can damage a permanent tooth, through infection reaching the tooth bud.
My child’s new molar came through yellow-brown. Is that a cavity?
It may be MIH — molar incisor hypomineralisation — a developmental defect where the enamel forms with too little mineral in it. Global estimates put it at 14 to 20 per cent of children, roughly one in six. It is not caused by hygiene or diet, and it matters because standard fillings do not bond well to hypomineralised enamel and can fail within weeks. It is treated differently. Dr. Sharifa AlHaj holds MIH Masterclass certification and it is a focus of her practice here.
Is there a way to treat a cavity without a drill?
Sometimes. Silver diamine fluoride is painted onto the cavity, kills the bacteria and hardens the softened tooth, taking one to three minutes per tooth with no injection and no drilling. It arrests 60 to 90 per cent of active cavities. It does not suit every case — not where infection has reached the nerve, and not where the tooth is broken, because it does not rebuild structure — and it turns the treated area permanently dark.
What if my child cannot manage the appointment?
That changes the plan rather than ending it. Nitrous oxide leaves your child awake and calmer; treatment under general anaesthesia in hospital completes everything in one session. We would start with the least invasive of those that will actually work.
What will this cost?
Tell reception your insurer when you book. We hold direct billing agreements with fifteen insurers, and cover differs between the pediatric and dental departments, so we check your eligibility before the appointment rather than at the desk. Anything not covered can be split into four payments with Tabby.
Your next step
Start with a conversation.
Tell us what is on your mind and reception will confirm the right specialist and a time.
- Opening hours
- Sat-Fri: 9AM - 6PM
- Insurance
- Direct billing with 15 insurers. Check yours
- Find us
- Al Razi Building 64, Block B
Dubai Healthcare City