BROKEN TEETH
Chipped, broken or cracked teeth?
Although the enamel that covers your teeth is the hardest, most mineralized tissue in the body, its strength has limits. Falling, receiving a blow to the face, or biting down on something hard - particularly if a tooth already has some decay – can cause a tooth to chip or break.
In the unfortunate event of a chipped, broken or cracked tooth, Loy Dental Care can offer a number of solutions, including composite bonding, porcelain veneers
How to Care for a Chipped or Broken Tooth
If your tooth is broken, chipped, or fractured, contact Loy Dental Care as soon as possible. Otherwise, your tooth could be damaged further or become infected, possibly causing you to end up losing the tooth.
If the tooth is painful, take a pain reliever. Rinse your mouth with salt water.
If the break has caused a sharp or jagged edge, cover it with a piece of wax paraffin or sugarless chewing gum to keep it from cutting your tongue or the inside of your lip or cheek.
If you must eat, eat soft foods and avoid biting down on the broken tooth.
Treatment for a broken or chipped tooth.
Treatment for a broken or chipped tooth will depend on how severely it is damaged. If only a small piece of enamel broke off, the repair can usually be done simply in one surgery visit.
Dental Filling or Bonding
If you have chipped off just a small piece of tooth enamel, your dentist may repair the damage with a filling. If the repair is to a front tooth or can be seen when you smile, your dentist will likely use a procedure called bonding, which uses a tooth-coloured composite resin.
Bonding is a simple procedure that typically does not require numbing the tooth. To bond a tooth, the dentist first etches its surface with a liquid or gel to roughen it and make the bonding material adhere to it.
Next, the dentist applies an adhesive material to the tooth followed by a tooth coloured resin.
After shaping the bonding material to look like a natural tooth, the dentist uses an ultraviolet light to harden the material.
Dental Crown
If a large piece of tooth breaks off or the tooth has a lot of decay, the dentist may grind or file away part of the remaining tooth and cover it with a crown, or tooth-shaped cap, made to protect the tooth and improve its appearance.
Permanent crowns can be made from metal, porcelain fused to metal, all resin, or all ceramic. Different types have different benefits. All-metal crowns are the strongest. Porcelain and resin crowns can be made to look nearly identical to the original tooth.
If the entire top of the tooth is broken off but the root is still intact, the dentist or an endodontist (a dentist who specializes in root canals) may perform root canal therapy and place a pin or a post in the canal, and then build up enough of a structure onto which a crown can be made. Later, the dentist can cement the crown over the pin or post-retained restoration.
Dental Veneer
If a front tooth is broken or chipped, a dental veneer can make it look whole and healthy again.
A dental veneer is a thin shell of tooth-coloured porcelain or resin composite material that covers the whole front of the tooth (much like a false nail covers a fingernail) with a thicker section to replace the broken part of the tooth.
