If only a small piece of your tooth broke off, your dental professional might be able to protect the remainder of the tooth with a crown or filling. If the fracture is severe, endodontic surgery may be required to remove the fractured portion to protect the pulp and the tooth.
If a molar is only half-broken, it can usually be fixed in one of two ways. If the break is relatively minor and the edges are still intact, your dentist may be able to bond the broken pieces back together. If the damage is more severe, they may need to use a dental crown or filling material to cover the break.
Treatments for a chipped, broken or cracked tooth include: gluing the fragment of tooth back on. a filling or a crown (a cap that completely covers the broken tooth) root canal treatment for a badly broken tooth where the nerves are exposed.
If a piece of tooth falls out, it's a good idea to save it to show the dentist. It can not be reattached (although if a tooth comes out completely, there is a chance it can be saved) but the dentist might want to see if it was tooth enamel or filling material.
A broken or cracked tooth treatment does not always need to be an extraction procedure. Sometimes the dentist may recommend alternative reparative solutions like root canal therapy.
Biting down on something hard like a popcorn kernel, hard candy, or ice cubes can crack or chip teeth. A fall, a car crash, or any forceful blow to the mouth can knock teeth out or break one or more of them.
You can still brush a broken tooth, but you should be gentle and very careful while doing so. Brushing too hard could cause pain or further damage to the tooth, especially if the nerves on the inside of the tooth are exposed. Flossing around a damaged tooth may help to reduce pain or pressure on the broken tooth.
Tooth decay weakens teeth by breaking down the hard outer layer of enamel, which exposes the inner dentin layer. This dentin layer is porous and can become infected, eventually causing the tooth to crack, chip, or even fall out.
Ideally, patients should schedule a visit to have the cracked tooth treated within a few days after the crack occurs and no more than two weeks after the incident. If symptoms begin to worsen, an emergency visit to the dentist for immediate care is most likely necessary.
This procedure involves bonding materials like resin or porcelain to the part of the tooth that has been chipped to repair imperfections. The average cost for this procedure is around $300, according to Dr. Chen, though it can range from $220 to $420, depending on your location.
Dental bonding is typically the least expensive, quickest, and easiest way to repair a chipped tooth, with veneers being next. Crowns are used for more extensively chipped or broken teeth when the entire top needs to be replaced. Dental implants are required when the entire tooth needs to be replaced.
If you break or chip a tooth, one of the possibilities is that you only damage the enamel layer. This means that you might not compromise the dentin layer, which protects the sensitive pulp. In that case, it's possible not to feel pain or only feel a mild toothache.
If the crack is small and does not go down to the root of the tooth, a filling may be able to be used to fix the problem. However, if the crack is large or goes down to the root of the tooth, an extraction will most likely be necessary to prevent infection.
If your fracture is small and superficial, you dentist can perform a procedure called composite filling. Sharp areas will smoothed out. Slight roughness will be created on the fractured area to increase the surface area onto which the filing will bond.
The most common question about chipped teeth is whether it is a dental emergency. Depending on the chip, you can leave it until the next day, but it may indeed count as a dental emergency and require immediate attention. To maintain your oral health, it is best to always consult your dentist about a chipped tooth.
Crowns are a great option for repairing cracked, chipped or broken teeth. Whether your tooth was broken by an oral injury or damaged due to wear & tear (such as teeth grinding) a crown is a good option.
If the crack hasn't reached the pulp (the center of the tooth that contains the nerve and the tooth's blood supply), a crown can protect the tooth. However, when a crack has extended to the center of the tooth, a root canal and crown are usually necessary. Typically, if the damage extends to this point you'll know it.
In Australia, treatment to fix a chipped tooth could cost between $250 and $350, an emergency root canal could be in the region of $900 to $1100, while the cost of an emergency extraction may be between $200 and $600.
The cost of the treatment will vary according to the extent of the damage. You can expect to pay approximately $300 to $600 for dental bonding and crowns can cost you anywhere between $700 and $2100 depending on how bad the damage is.
A tooth that is broken or fractured below the gum line or down to the bone level may also be considered non-restorable. When the roots of the teeth become fractured due to trauma, healing may be nearly impossible, and tooth extraction may be the best choice.
Repairing your broken tooth may take weeks or months depending on your treatment. Your dentist will give you a better idea of how long your specific repair might take. For instance: Crowns: Your dentist can sometimes fit a crown in a day, but it often takes multiple appointments.
Without professional treatment, the broken tooth is susceptible to an infection that will only get worse over time. This infection can move to the neck and head, causing all sorts of health problems. While rare, it is possible for a chipped tooth to prove life-threatening.
Cracked Tooth
If the crack has extended into the pulp, the tooth can be treated with a root canal procedure and a crown to protect the crack from spreading. However, if the crack extends below the gum line, it is no longer treatable, and the tooth cannot be saved and will need to be extracted.