At Stones Crossing Dentistry in Greenwood, Indiana, Dr. Aaron Wilkins and our team are here to help you with all of your oral care needs. Did you know that tooth enamel is the hardest substance in your body, even harder than your bones? Even so, your teeth can be injured, causing cracked, or fractured, teeth.
If you are eating and feel a sharp pain when you bite down on your food, but it stops when you stop putting pressure on your tooth, your tooth may have a fracture. A tooth can crack for various reasons:
- If you chew on hard objects such as ice, hard candy, or hard nuts you can fracture a tooth.
- An accident to the mouth can crack a tooth.
- If your tooth enamel is exposed to temperature extremes, your tooth can crack. So if you are eating hot soup, don’t be tempted to sip ice water with it.
- Your teeth can crack if you persistently grind or clench your teeth (also known as bruxism).
To repair your cracked tooth, Dr. Aaron Wilkins will examine the tooth and determine the proper treatment. For minor cracks bonding with a tooth-colored composite resin or dental filling may be all that is required, but if the damage is severe, the tooth may need to be extracted, requiring a root canal. Routine dental checkups are important to catch tooth problems when they are still small and treatment is least invasive.
If you need help with tooth pain, call our dental team as soon as possible. In the meantime, avoid chewing on that side of your mouth and if needed, take acetaminophen or over-the-counter pain reliever and rinse with salt water until you are seen. Dr. Aaron Wilkins and our Stones Crossing Dentistry team in Greenwood, Indiana, are here to help. Please call 317.535.3940 today!
