Screen is completely white when on! how can I fix this?

i had it since last Christmas and i love it to death. its the newer one (with camera) and just today i went to turn it on and the screen was completely white! no music or anything. still is like that, except i punched the back of it and now it plays music, but the screen stays white, so i blindly shuffle through all my songs. it wasn't until 5 minutes ago that i realized that my ipod is seriously scratched and dented, i mean literally dented! there is a dent that goes across the bottom about 1 inch wide. could this be the problem??? i have tried turning it off then on, using the itunes restore to reset it to factory settings. but still white screen of death! is it permanently damaged? please help, i don't think i can live without my ipod!