Your tooth enamel has been designed to be strong enough to handle the daily wear and tear of biting and chewing food. Unfortunately, there are still times when a blow to the face or other activity can chip a tooth. This is even more likely to happen if you grind your teeth on a regular basis, use your teeth as tools, or have a bad habit of nibbling on foreign objects.
Even if a chip doesn’t cause pain, you should not put off having it repaired. This is potentially dangerous because the chipped enamel will inevitably invite bacteria to exploit it. This could result in a new area of tooth decay setting into already compromised tooth enamel. And, more importantly, there might be an underlying cause for the chipping. Some reasons include a bruxing habit (sometimes unknown to patients as it happens during sleep), a malocclusion (teeth don’t fit together correctly) or both!
With this in mind, Dr. Spear encourages patients to have any chipped tooth addressed.
The severity of the chip will largely influence the treatment and repair options that he recommends.
A minor chip can often be repaired with a basic filling or cosmetic bonding procedure.
If a chip is significant, or if it’s in a critical part of a tooth, Dr. Spear might recommend replacing the tooth enamel with a dental crown made from either porcelain or even gold. (Believe it or not, gold still has its place in dentistry.)
In extreme cases, a chipped tooth might also result in damage to the interior pulp. If this is the case, Dr. Spear might need to perform a root canal to restore the damaged structures before placing a crown.
If you have a chipped tooth please don’t hesitate to call the office at 817-920-1488 and set up an appointment to have your chipped tooth examined and repaired.