Sometimes, the cause of a tooth breaking is an accident, beyond our control – though there are certainly things you can do to protect your teeth and make them less prone to breaking. For example, if you play high-impact sports or chronically grind your teeth, wear a mouth guard to protect your teeth from expected forces. Keeping your teeth strong and healthy with a comprehensive oral hygiene routine also helps protect them from fracturing under day-to-day conditions, which can happen in people with weak teeth or bones, extensive tooth decay, or advanced gum disease. Sometimes, our own behaviors cause our teeth to break. For example, if you use your teeth to open bottles, you should expect that one will break at some point. Teeth aren’t tools, and they shouldn’t be used as such. Their only function is to help us speak clearly and eat a variety of foods while they support the structure and shape of the face and jawbone. They’re also not designed to chew things that aren’t food, like pens or ice. In many cases, it’s possible to prevent a tooth from breaking, but it’s important to do your part by respecting your teeth and taking care of them.
Whether you know how your tooth broke or not, you should definitely call your dentist right away. If the fracture is minimal and you’re not in pain, it might be okay to wait until your dentist is available for an evaluation, though you should still call the dentist to explain the situation and set something up. If you’re in pain, which usually happens if half your tooth breaks off, seek emergency dental or medical care. Make sure to see your dentist for regular checkups, too, which include a visual and manual examination of the teeth that allows your dentist to discover and evaluate minor cracks or fractures that you might not know are there but that could worsen over time. No matter the circumstances, there’s a solution that will help restore the structure and appearance of the tooth. In some cases, this may involve an entirely new tooth, like a dental crown, though other broken or cracked teeth can often be repaired with techniques like fillings and bonding or visually restored with bonding or veneers.
A tooth cracking in half is definitely not a good sign, and it’s highly likely that you’ll be in a lot of pain if your tooth cracks in half – especially if you try to bite down or chew with the damaged tooth. Even if you’re not in pain, you should contact your dentist immediately. Definitely don’t ignore it if your tooth breaks in half. Teeth are made of three layers: an outer layer of shiny, sturdy enamel; a middle layer of calcified dentin that makes up the hard structure of the tooth; and an inner layer, deep inside the tooth, of dental pulp that’s teeming with blood vessels and nerve endings. If this pulp is exposed when the enamel and dentin are broken, which can happen if a tooth breaks in half, it’s not only painful; it also makes the tooth more prone to infection. The pulp might not be exposed immediately upon fracture, but if the broken tooth is left untreated, it can easily sustain even more damage and expose the pulp. Infection in a tooth is painful on its own, but when the infection is left untreated, it can spread in the bloodstream into other systems in the body and could even end up being life-threatening. The sooner you can get to an emergency dentist, the better. Early attention helps prevent infection, and it also increases the likelihood of saving the tooth.
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