Dental Restorations For Kids In Louisville, CO

Mini Miners places dental restorations for kids in Louisville, Colorado: white fillings, steel and white crowns, no-drill Hall crowns, pulp therapy and space maintainers. Our office is at 61 Erie Pkwy in Erie, and Dr. Alison Grover is a board-certified pediatric dentist.

Dr. Grover walks you and your child through the treatment plan in plain words, and we answer your questions before anything starts.

Your Child's Treatment Plan, Line by Line

A restoration is any repair that puts a decayed or broken tooth back to work. Each one appears on a treatment plan as a short description and a code from the American Dental Association's CDT code set. These are the lines that show up most on plans for dental restorations for kids in Louisville:

D2391 or D2392, resin composite, posterior: a white filling on 1 or 2 surfaces of a back tooth. Every filling we place is mercury-free composite.
D2930, stainless steel crown, primary tooth: a steel cap on a baby molar, placed the standard way or as a Hall crown.
D2929, ceramic crown, primary tooth: a white zirconia crown. More of the tooth gets trimmed so it fits.
D3220, therapeutic pulpotomy: infected nerve tissue removed from the top of a baby tooth, followed by a crown.
D1510 or D1575, space maintainer: a band and loop or a distal shoe that holds a gap open.
D1354, caries arresting medicament: silver diamine fluoride brushed on to stop a cavity. The decay turns black.

Most restoration appointments take 30 to 60 minutes. Single fillings run shorter, and crowns or pulp therapy run longer. Fillings and crowns each have a full page: white fillings, and white and Hall crowns.

Steel, White or Hall Crown

Once decay spreads across 2 or more surfaces of a back baby tooth, a crown outlasts a filling. The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry's restorative guidance cites 5 studies where multi-surface amalgam fillings in baby molars failed at an average of 26% within 5 years. Steel crowns failed at 7%. The same guidance says white composite may not suit large multi-surface repairs on back baby teeth.

That leaves 3 crowns, and each one trades something.

Steel stays on best

A preformed steel crown is the most proven repair for a badly decayed baby molar. It shows silver when your child laughs, and the AAPD rates its retention ahead of zirconia.

Hall crowns skip the shot and the drill

A Hall crown is a steel crown cemented over the decayed molar with no local anesthetic, no decay removal and no tooth preparation. The AAPD lists it as an option when a standard crown isn't workable, such as for a child who can't sit through one. It only suits molars where the decay hasn't reached the nerve, so we use it where the case fits.

White zirconia looks like a tooth

We place white crowns on back teeth as well as front ones. The tradeoff is tooth structure: more gets trimmed away, and the tooth needs at least 2 mm of height left for the crown to hold. Gums tend to stay healthier around zirconia. In 1 university clinic, 93% of zirconia crowns were still working at 1 year and 76% at 3.

How Long Restorations Last on Baby Teeth

Crowns outlast fillings on baby teeth, and new decay at the edge of an old repair ends more of them than anything else. A 2018 review of 31 studies in the International Journal of Paediatric Dentistry, covering 1 to 4 years of follow-up, found 96.1% success for steel crowns and 79.3% for composite fillings. New decay at the margin caused 36.5% of failures.

Louisville's water already does part of the work. State-reported 2023 monitoring put the city's fluoride at an average of 0.72 ppm, close to the 0.7 mg/L federal target. That leaves sugar frequency and brushing along the edges of the repair as the parts you can change. Our cavity prevention page covers both.

When Medicine Can Stop a Cavity

Silver diamine fluoride (SDF) can stop a cavity in a baby tooth from growing, with no drilling and no shot. It doesn't rebuild the tooth, and it stains the decay black for good.

A national trial published in JAMA Pediatrics on July 27, 2026 enrolled 830 children aged 12 to 71 months with severe early childhood decay. Each child got 38% SDF or a placebo. At 6 months, SDF had stopped 54.0% of treated cavities against 22.5% for placebo. At 8 months it was 50.2% against 17.4%.

Close to half of treated cavities stayed active, and follow-up ended at 8 months. SDF holds a cavity. A filling or crown repairs it. The FDA cleared SDF for tooth sensitivity, so using it on cavities is off-label. It fits small cavities on back teeth, where the stain won't show, and it can hold a cavity until a sedation visit.

Pulp Therapy for an Infected Baby Tooth

When decay reaches the nerve of a baby tooth, a filling can't fix it. A pulpotomy removes the infected nerve tissue from the top of the tooth and seals the rest. A crown follows to protect what's left. If the infection runs deeper, a pulpectomy cleans out the whole canal and fills it with material that dissolves as the tooth gets ready to fall out.

Wait too long and an abscess can form on the gum, and the tooth often has to come out. A baby molar is worth saving because it holds the space its adult replacement will need.

Space Maintainers After an Early Tooth Loss

If a back baby tooth comes out years early, the teeth beside it tip into the gap and the adult tooth underneath can lose its room. A space maintainer holds that room until the adult tooth arrives. The X-ray decides it: which tooth is gone, and how far along its replacement is.

A band and loop covers 1 lost baby molar. A distal shoe guides the 6-year molar in when the last baby molar is lost before that molar erupts. A lower lingual holding arch covers 2 or more missing back teeth on the bottom. A maintainer gets checked at regular visits and comes out once the adult tooth starts through.

In the Chair: Comfort and Sedation

Laughing gas, or nitrous oxide, is available for fillings and crowns, and parents are always welcome in our treatment rooms.

Each treatment room is private, with a ceiling-mounted TV, and your child picks the movie. Chairs adjust, and positioning stays flexible during treatment for a child who won't lie flat. Laughing gas comes before numbing, and our team follows a no-scary-words policy.

Children who need more have 2 further levels. Oral conscious sedation is a liquid medicine that relaxes a child and makes them drowsy. General anesthesia is given in our office by a board-certified anesthesiologist from Mile High Anesthesia or Rocky Mountain Dental Anesthesia, and you join your child in recovery before they wake.

If your child had a rough visit elsewhere, start with a happy visit, where your child walks through the space and nothing gets done. Our sedation options page explains all 3 levels.

The First 24 Hours

Watch your child's lip and cheek until the numbness wears off. Numb skin gets chewed, and kids don't feel it until later. Keep the first meal soft.

Gums around a new crown can be tender for a day or 2. For 2 to 4 weeks after a Hall crown, the bite feels high on that side. Call us if it still feels high after a month. If the visit ended with fluoride varnish, your child can eat and drink right away.

Call right away for swelling, a fever with tooth pain, or pain that gets in the way of eating or sleep. After hours, current patients call (303) 500-3202 and press 2.

Dr. Grover's Training and Background

Dr. Alison Grover, DDS, opened Mini Miners with her husband in 2017. They started with 4 patients. She is a board-certified Diplomate of the American Board of Pediatric Dentistry, which means passing its written and oral exams. She earned her DDS and a general practice residency certificate at the University of Colorado School of Dental Medicine, then completed a 2-year pediatric residency at UCLA. She studied at Wellesley College and holds a master's in broadcast journalism from the University of Colorado Boulder. She grew up in Boulder and went to Fairview High School.

Questions About Dental Restorations for Kids in Louisville

Is it worth fixing a baby tooth that will fall out?

It depends on how long the tooth has left, which the AAPD tells dentists to weigh before restoring a baby tooth. Back baby molars usually stay until about age 10 to 12, so a cavity at age 5 has years to grow. A small cavity in a tooth due out within months may only need watching or SDF.

Will my child's crown be silver?

Only if you choose steel. We place white crowns on back teeth too. Steel still stays on best, and Hall crowns are always steel, so we'll go through both before you decide.

Can I stay with my child during treatment?

Yes. Parents are always welcome in our treatment rooms. Under general anesthesia, you join your child in recovery before they wake.

My child chipped a front tooth. Does it need a crown?

Usually not. Small chips are rebuilt with tooth-colored composite bonding. Pink or a dot of blood in the middle of the break means the nerve is showing, so call us the same day and bring any piece you find.

A filling or crown came off after hours. What do we do?

Current patients call (303) 500-3202 and press 2 to reach our on-call pediatric dentist. We prioritize same-day emergency appointments for established patients whenever possible. Bring the crown with you.

From Louisville to Our Erie Office

We place dental restorations for kids in Louisville at 61 Erie Pkwy, Unit 101, Erie, CO 80516. New patients can start with our pediatric dentist in Louisville page.

Hours: Monday to Thursday, 8 AM to 5 PM. Friday, 8 AM to 3:30 PM. Closed Saturday and Sunday.

To book dental restorations for kids in Louisville, call (303) 500-3202, text (720) 734-5890, or use the form below.

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