madamme cocoa,You have a condition referred to as "Super-eruption". Since teeth are attached to bone by a dynamic periodontal ligament system, a tooth will drift up if it is a lower tooth or drift down if it is an upper tooth when no opposing tooth is present. There are some possible options to attempt to treat this. One is orthodontic therapy to intrude the tooth back in the direction where it came from and restore the missing, opposing tooth. Sometimes a preparation and crown could be done, but this would probably require root canal therapy as well since the reduction would likely get into the pulp of the tooth. Many times the tooth has to be extracted when it has drifted so far that it is contacting and chewing the gum on the ridge of the opposite arch. If extraction is needed, then restoration with an implant and crown, a bridge or removable partial denture would be needed. You will also need to restore the missing tooth that allowed the super-eruption to occur. The tooth could be adjusted to get you out of immediate pain so it can not contact the gum; however, this will only provide temporary relief as the tooth will continue to drift until it contacts something again which would be your opposing gum tissue.Douglas Jopling, DDSDallas, TX area
