AESTHETICS IN DENTISTRY PART 2 – Crack or Chipped tooth

Howdy

How are you today? Previously we were discussing on what matters in a smile. If you missed it ,here is the link.

Problem number two from the previous list was chipped tooth. The tooth is not the strongest material on earth, if mishandled it can chip and crack. It is a nightmare to have the tooth chipped particularly the front ones whether from an accidental fall, or trying to open a bottle with the teeth. AHA! yes ! Dearth of bottle openers, the teeth open it all. Let’s look at easy ways to crack or chip your teeth!

10 Easy Ways to Crack or Chip Your Teeth

1 – Get your tongue pierced and wear a hard metal object in it.  The hard metal will constantly bump up against your teeth and can chip and/or cause cracks.  A major cause of chips in front teeth is from tongue barbells.

tongue
source: Aliexpress above picture: tongue barbels/piercing

2 – Don’t wear a protective athletic mouth guard when playing sports.  This one’s pretty easy, since it involves doing nothing.  Just don’t go to your dentist and get a custom mouthguard made, and you’ll be at a much higher risk for getting a cracked or chipped tooth.

sg_before1 mouth-Gaurd2

3 – Chew on ice or any other hard object.

Another common culprit of cracked teeth is popcorn kernels.  For some reason, people like to finish the whole bag of popcorn, and if some kernels didn’t pop like they were supposed to, they feel like they need to get eaten too.  If your popcorn bowl looks like the one below when you’re done, then congratulations!

Cracked Teeth Can Occur from Chewing Unpopped Popcorn Kernels

4 – Use your teeth as tools – to open things, use them as scissors to cut tape or cut tags off of new clothes.  Pretty much any way you use your teeth as tools, you will be putting excessive wear on them that could cause small cracks.

open-bottle-with-teeth

5 – Grind your teeth and don’t do anything about it.  If you grind your teeth, you could end up cracking them or even wearing your teeth down to almost nothing.  If you think that you may be grinding your teeth while you sleep, it’s best to talk to your dentist about it.  Most dentists will make an appliance you can wear to help stop teeth grinding.

bruxism effects bruxism

6 – Don’t brush, make sure you get a big cavity, then go to your dentist and have a really bigfilling put in your tooth.  By losing so much tooth structure to tooth decay, it will be a lot easier to get your tooth to crack.

7 – Don’t get braces.  By not having the teeth in proper alignment, it is easier to put stresses on them when you bite, which could lead to worn down teeth, or cracking in more extreme circumstances.

8 – Clench your teeth often.  A lot of people clench their teeth when they’re stressed out.  Well, clenching can also stress out your teeth!  That’s alright if you want to crack or chip your teeth, but if you want to keep your teeth nice and healthy for a lifetime, try to stop clenching.

9 – Keep on getting older.  After a lifetime of wear, teeth can get pretty worn down and cracked.  Some experts believe that as you get older, your teeth become more brittle, which makes them more prone to cracking.

10 – Eat rocks or bones.  It does happen.  A lot of people find rocks in a can of re-fried beans or don’t sort out rocks from dried beans.  Another culprit is finding a bone in a fast food hamburger or chicken sandwich.  When you unexpectedly bite into something hard with a lot of force, it can easily crack or chip a tooth.

Please avoid them as far as possible! If however the chipped happened, please visit your dentist at once.

Depending on the degree of cracking or chip, the latter (your doctor) will propose either bonding (composite fillings) or a crown .

fix-chipped-front-tooth tooth-contouring-reshaping

chip

If the tooth is badly chipped, with pain when chewing or drinking, or there is root damage, a crown may be used to fix it. The crown covers the chipped tooth and protects it while improving the appearance at the same time.

Veneers, crowns, and fillings can all be made to color match surrounding teeth. If a filling, crown, or veneer should become chipped, it too would need to be checked and repaired.

In the event that a chipped tooth turns out to be very badly damaged, such as root or nerve damage, it may be necessary to perform root canal therapy to save the tooth or worse case scenario, extract the tooth and replace it with a dental implant.

crown-series

However if the fracture extends all the way to the root , unfortunately this tooth cannot be saved and will need to be extracted.

Until next time . Time to put the pen down.

1 thought on “AESTHETICS IN DENTISTRY PART 2 – Crack or Chipped tooth”

  1. Hi, can I have an appointment please? Thank you, I was told I had to remove the whole tooth and it is only a little bit that is broken. Thank you!!

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