Ever been out to lunch and felt a strange crunch? A crunch that was definitely NOT your sandwich? Only to discover that what you’d been dreading was true: a chipped tooth.
A chipped and broken tooth can cause you both pain and embarrassment. If you are unfortunate enough to end up with a chipped tooth, the most important thing is to correct not only the chipping, but to identify and stop what caused the chip in the first place. A chipped tooth can be caused by a number of factors:
- Using your teeth for purposes for which they were not meant, like opening bottles.
- Biting into hard foods, like stone fruit or unpopped corn kernels, particularly if the tooth already has some decay.
- Bruxing and grinding, which can be a subconscious movement, something that many people simply don’t know that they do.
- A history of heavily filled teeth or a weakened part of your tooth, which breaks off.
- An old filling, which has failed from age and fatigue.
- Falling or being hit in the face.
Our Chipped Tooth Services and Procedures
Procedures to treat a cracked tooth vary depending on the extent of the damage. In most cases, chips can be repaired in a single dental visit. However, some may require larger, more extensive and more time-consuming treatments such as crowns. During your appointment we will examine your chipped tooth, and tailor a comprehensive treatment plan especially for your needs. We can even provide a quote for both the most ideal long-term option and the most effective short-term immediate solution for your needs. Some of the treatments that we may use for a chipped tooth include:
- Dental Composite Bonding with white fillings: for larger, more extensive chips
- Enamel Shaping: for smaller chips that do not require composite bonding
- Dental Veneers
- Dental Crowns
- Tooth Extraction
Why Treat a Chipped or Broken Tooth?
Left untreated, a chipped tooth can lead to a number of quite painful, and in some cases, severe problems:
- Your chipped tooth could become damaged further, or even become infected, possibly causing the loss of your tooth altogether.
- If you do lose your tooth, this may also result in nerve damage, and could kill your nerve completely, followed by the formation of an abscess under your tooth. If this occurs, we can treat the tooth with root canal therapy.
- In very serious cases, your tooth might split down the middle, into two pieces. If this occurs, unfortunately, we cannot save or salvage your tooth. We’ll need to extract and possibly replace your tooth with an implant.
How to Minimise the Risk of A Chipped Tooth
There are a number of things you can do to reduce the risk of chipping your teeth. All you need to do is follow some simple dental guidelines:
- If you are prone to grinding or bruxing your teeth, then it is a good idea to get fitted for an occlusal splint or possibly another type of dental appliance. Wearing a dental appliance will greatly reduce the wear and tear on your teeth, increasing their longevity by years and reducing the likelihood of chipping enormously.
- Wear a mouthguard during any physical contact sport.
- Minimise sticky, hard or chewy foods in your diet, avoiding hard foods like corn kernels and ice, and chewy foods that stick to your teeth, like honeycomb.
- Do not use your teeth to open bottles, or to chew on pens or any other foreign objects.
- Make sure oral hygiene is top notch, with regular dental visits.
Contact dhealth Dentistry Today
Contacting dhealth Dentistry in Melbourne couldn’t be easier. You can:- Call us on 03 9882 6938
- Email us at info@dhealth.com.au
- Pop in and see us at 257 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Melbourne