What You Should Know About Chipped Tooth
teethIt is a fact that our teeth can get damaged even if we maintain only the finest dental hygiene. If our teeth were damaged, this causes pain that is almost unbearable. We also need professional advice from a dentist on how to cure the pain and hopefully save your tooth. Chipped tooth is one of the many tooth problems that may or may not cause pain.
A chipped tooth is a tooth that has lost a part of its original structure. Teeth with more superficial cracks are also included in this category. Chipped tooth can be the result of playing sports, meeting an accident, or having an active lifestyle. These activities can possibly result to a chipped tooth if you accidentally hit your mouth with hard objects during play or an accident. Most of the time, a chipped tooth doesn’t hurt. But even if your tooth doesn’t cause you pain, you still need to see a dentist to check if it needs immediate medical attention. Some tooth problem appears to be not sp bothersome, but they can possibly lead to tooth infection.
The dentist is the first person that should be approached if you have a chipped tooth or any tooth problem for that matter. He knows how to repair a damaged tooth. Each chipped tooth may be treated as a unique case, and will need unique medical treatments. The level of the damage on the tooth will tell the dentist what method must be done to treat it. During the first consultation, the dentist will check the tooth and assess how severely the tooth is damaged. He will then decide what appropriate treatment is the best, and what things he may perform to treat the damage. Dental x-rays are done for more accurate assessments especially when the damage on the tooth is not superficial.
For a minimally damaged tooth, the dentist can just fill the tooth and smoothen the surface. In some cases, a minimally damaged tooth doesn’t require immediate treatment. But a dentist who doesn’t want to take any chances will not ignore a slightly damaged tooth. The dentist can bond the tooth with porcelain or composite veneers.
In case you’ve always experience agonizing pain due to your chipped tooth, you must immediately seek a dentist’s advice. If the tooth was badly damaged, the dentist can place a crown on your tooth. The crown is like a cap that covers the tooth and prevents it from being extensively damaged. There are also badly damaged tooth that doesn’t need a crown but only a filling. For a tooth that appears to be okay but is badly damaged inside, a more serious treatment is needed to restore it. A tooth must be extracted and replaced if it is already totally broken. For uniformity, the fillings and the crown must have the same hue as the existing teeth.
The important thing is to immediately see a dentist if you have a chipped tooth whether it incurred minimal or serious damages. Do not wait to experience unbearable pain before seeing a dentist. Take note that an untreated chipped tooth with a minimal damage can lead to the speedy deterioration of the tooth, and may result to a more serious tooth infection later on.
Before you get your teeth checked, make sure you review what Sara writes about what to do with a baby chipped tooth and how to fix broken tooth.