A chipped tooth can occur at the most unexpected times. It might happen while you are enjoying a crunchy snack or during one of your favorite contact sports. Chipped teeth can have a negative impact on the way that your smile looks, and they can leave teeth more susceptible to tooth decay.
Regardless of how severe a chipped tooth is, getting it checked out by a dentist is essential. It ruins the aesthetics of a person’s smile, and the sharp edges created can end up damaging soft tissues in the mouth. Simple things that can be done to manage a chipped tooth while waiting to see the dentist include:
How badly a tooth is broken or chipped dictates how a dentist goes about restoring it. Less severe breaks tend to only cause aesthetic issues, so they can be fixed with simple treatments like enamel re-contouring. More serious damage to a tooth requires a more invasive approach, like the installation of crowns. Treatments that a dentist might recommend for chipped or broken teeth include the following.
Enamel reshaping: This involves the dentist using a dental drill and other tools to smooth out the chip so the tooth blends in with the rest of the patient’s teeth.
Dental bonding: This treatment is used to treat less severe chips and breaks. It involves applying a composite resin directly to the tooth that needs to be treated. These composites are mixtures of plastics and glass, and they can be color-matched with the rest of the patient’s teeth. These composites can be molded as desired, allowing dentists to use composites to rebuild teeth that have been chipped, decayed or broken.
Veneers: These tooth-shaped restorations are often the next option when the damage to a patient’s tooth is too severe to be treated with bonding or reshaping. Veneers are cemented to the front part of teeth and hide any imperfections. They look just like real teeth, so placing veneers over a chipped tooth hides the damage and creates the appearance of a healthy, fully intact tooth.
Crowns: Crowns are often used as a last resort when other options have been deemed insufficient. A crown covers up the entire tooth and hides flaws all around the tooth. The installation of a crown is a permanent procedure that requires removing teeth enamel from all four sides of the tooth being treated. This practice leads to a better fit with the restoration, which leads to better protection for the damaged tooth. Crowns restore the aesthetics of chipped teeth and protect them from further damage.
Call or visit our St George clinic to learn more about how our dentist can fix your chipped or broken tooth.
Request an appointment here: https://www.stgeorgedentalcare.com or call St. George Dental Care at (435) 628-9099 for an appointment in our St George office.
Check out what others are saying about our dental services on Yelp: What Should I Do If I Chip My Tooth in St George, UT.
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