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.
You should be rinsing your mouth with warm water if you have broken or chipped a tooth for cleaning it. This is a suggestion provided by the American Dental Association. Applying pressure to stop any bleeding and placing a cold compress on the area to reduce swelling is also suggested.
Don't Eat or Drink Unless Necessary
But if at all possible, you should at least avoid solid foods, sugary or acidic foods and beverages, and anything that's hot or cold. These types of foods are more likely to increase the pain. Any pressure on the damaged tooth can also worsen breakage.
Broken and chipped teeth
If it's causing you pain, you should: Floss around the area first, and then thoroughly brush the tooth as normal to keep it clean. Take over-the-counter painkillers such as paracetamol to ease pain.
Dentists suggest root canal to treat the broken teeth in such a situation. They remove the infection first and then place a crown to prevent the infection from spreading. Fillings are among the safest dental procedures that dentists use to fix broken teeth.
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.
Once a tooth is damaged or decaying, it's only a matter of time before it dies. Depending on how heavy the damage, the tooth could die within a matter of days or even a couple of months.
The most common causes of tooth fractures are: Age, with many tooth cracks happening at age 50 and older. Biting hard foods, such as candy, ice or popcorn kernels. Habits, such as gum chewing, ice chewing.
Your chipped tooth could lead to an infection if it remains untreated for an extended amount of time. An infection could put the tooth in jeopardy of becoming lost prematurely, and the infection could also spread to other parts of the mouth and body if not properly treated in a timely manner.
In some cases, biting on something hard, like a nut shell or bone has caused the fracture. In other cases, normal chewing finally breaks off a portion of the tooth. If you experience a broken tooth, you should see a dentist soon.
If you're wondering, “Can a dentist fix a half-broken tooth?”, yes, a dentist can usually fix a broken or chipped tooth. However, it's essential to get to your dentist as soon as possible after realizing your tooth broke in half.
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 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.
4. Clean tooth gently. As previously mentioned, placing too much pressure on a cracked tooth can cause an increase in pain and sensitivity. Next, it is important to clean the cracked tooth gently by softly brushing over it and using mouthwash more than usual in order to prevent an infection from developing.
Rinse but do not brush
There could be bleeding when there is a broken tooth. The person should rinse with warm water to flush out the blood. This will also keep the area clean. However, the individual should not brush the fractured tooth.
If you have a chipped tooth, you can expect infection to set in as quickly as a week or up to a few months later. The important thing is to take care of the chipped tooth as soon as possible so that you can avoid infection.
Biting and chewing hard foods, such as popcorn kernels, candy, or ice. Bad oral habits, such as opening lids and cans with your teeth, gum chewing, or ice chewing. Large dental fillings or a root canal – these restorations weaken the tooth structure, potentially causing chips and cracks.
Most dentists can remove teeth that are broken to the gum line. In these cases, certain instruments such as forceps and elevators will be used to remove what is left of the damaged tooth. In some situations, your dentist will need to reflect your gum tissue to gain access to 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.
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.
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.
The risks of not treating a cracked tooth
The biggest risks of leaving a cracked tooth untreated are that severe pain and sensitivity can develop, gum swelling and tenderness can occur, and the likelihood of oral infection is much higher.
The patient should get in to see a dentist right away to get it fixed. If there is no pain, bleeding, or swelling, it is probably not an emergency. Even so, if there is a sharp edge left behind, it can cut the cheek or gums and make it hard to eat or talk. If it's in a front tooth, it could be noticeable to others.