Fractured Tooth Repair

Don't Put Off Treatment
Ouch! You fractured a tooth?  It's best to come in and see Dr. McBride.  Depending upon the cause of the fracture, the tooth could be very vulnerable to further destruction.  If your tooth is painful, sensitive to hot or cold foods, make an appointment right away; the nerve of the tooth has been exposed or traumatized by the fracture. The longer you wait to treat the tooth the more intensive and lengthy the treatment will be. Left neglected, the fracture can lead to a root canal infection and even loss of the tooth itself.

Common Causes of Tooth Fracture

• a hit or collision with an object
• biting down on a hard object
• chewing ice
• the breakdown of an old silver filling
• an imbalanced bite and collision occurs between the teeth

Treatment
It is important to determine the cause so that future fractures can be prevented.  Especially if the situation is caused by an imbalanced bite because correction of the bite would be best to take place before permanent repair of the fracture, or you could risk the restoration to fracture as the tooth did originally.

In the event that a basic, small chip occurs, usually a composite, acrylic based material can be bonded to the tooth after preparing the tooth.  These can last for a long time if kept clean and not stressed by biting pressures.

Sometimes a fracture can be too large for a simple bonding, and for the best future of the tooth, a lab fabricated restoration is needed.  Dr. McBride would need to evaluate the tooth to provide a recommendation.  In any case where the tooth can be saved,  you would have a temporary restoration on the tooth until the permanent restoration could be placed.  In the event that the nerve of the tooth is affected by the fracture, endodontic (root canal) therapy would be indicated.

See Crown and Veneers or Endodontic Therapy for more information.