A chipped tooth can affect your appearance and self-esteem while impacting your overall oral health. It’s crucial to receive treatment for your chipped tooth as soon as possible to prevent more serious dental issues.
At No Gaps Dental, we offer several chipped tooth repair treatments, from dental crowns to porcelain veneers, to help restore your smile and renew your confidence.
What Can Cause a Chipped Tooth?
Your teeth consist of a hard outer layer of enamel, covering another hard tissue called dentin. In the centre is the pulp chamber containing the pulp, blood vessels, and nerves that nourish the tooth.
Tooth enamel is extremely hard. It rates at 5 on the Mohs Hardness Scale, which is stronger than steel (Mohs 4.5). However, the enamel is also porous, making it vulnerable to acid erosion from food and bacterial byproducts. The porous structure also means that enamel is relatively brittle. Erosion and tooth decay due to diet or poor oral hygiene weaken the enamel leaving it prone to chipping.
A chipped tooth can have numerous causes, including:
- Facial trauma due to a vehicle accident, contact sports, or a fall
- Biting hard foods like nuts, candy, or ice
- Using your teeth to open packages
- Jaw clenching or bruxism
How to Care for a Chipped Tooth Before Treatment?
You should seek immediate treatment for a chipped tooth. If left untreated, a chipped tooth can erode further, causing cavities and introducing bacteria into your tooth. This can lead to severe tooth decay, which may require more extensive treatment, such as a root canal or tooth extraction.
If you can’t visit your dentist for emergency dental services, like dental crowns or bonding, there are some simple ways to care for your chipped tooth until you can receive treatment.
- Rinse your mouth with a warm salt water solution. The alkaline solution gently removes any debris and eliminates bacteria to prevent infection. Combine 1 teaspoon of table salt with 1 cup of warm water and rinse morning, evening, and after eating.
- Use a cold compress. If your chipped tooth is causing your gums to swell, or if the chip was caused by facial trauma, apply a cold compress to the affected side of your face intermittently for 15 minutes.
- Eat carefully. A chipped tooth is vulnerable to breakage. Avoid hard or sticky foods and eat on the opposite side of your mouth.
- Use dental wax. The jagged edges of a chipped tooth can damage the soft tissue in your mouth. Seal the chip temporarily with paraffin dental wax to smooth out the surface and prevent bacteria entering your tooth.
Chipped Tooth Repair Options: Dental Crowns
Dental crowns are an excellent chipped tooth repair treatment for severe chips on teeth that already have large fillings. A tooth with a large filling is already structurally compromised, and repairing the chip with dental bonding and a secondary filling can further reduce the tooth’s structural integrity.
Dental crowns are also used as part of root canal therapy. If your tooth has sustained serious internal damage to the pulp, in addition to the chip, you may need to have a root canal to save the tooth. Dental crowns are used to cap the tooth to provide additional stability and support.
A dental crown is a custom-made cap that covers the entire visible surface of the tooth. The dental crown is colour-matched to your natural teeth to blend seamlessly with your smile.
At No Gaps Dental, we offer state-of-the-art CEREC dental crown technology. During your dental crown consultation, your dentist manually examines your teeth and gums, then grinds the affected tooth into a conical shape to accommodate the dental crown.
They then use an intraoral camera to take digital images of your mouth. These images are analysed using the CEREC software, which creates a 3D mock-up of your mouth. Your dentist uses this 3D image to design your custom dental crown on the computer screen.
Once the imaging and design process is complete, the data is sent to the on-site milling machine. The dentist selects a solid block of ceramic to match your tooth colour. The CEREC machine grinds and shapes the ceramic into a dental crown according to the 3D model. The dental crown fabrication process takes between 10 and 15 minutes.
After the shaping process, your dentist fits your dental crown over the tooth and may make some slight adjustments before cementing it in place.
Chipped Tooth Repair Options: Composite Bonding
If you have a minor tooth chip, your dentist may prescribe dental bonding as an alternative to dental crowns.
Dental bonding uses a tooth-coloured acrylic resin to seal chips or cracks and is an excellent choice for restoring chipped tooth cusps.
After cleaning debris from your damaged tooth, your dentist chemically roughens the tooth surface. This allows the resin to adhere more effectively for a long-lasting restoration.
Your dentist applies the composite resin in thin layers, curing each layer with a UV light to harden and set the composite. The dentist then shapes and polishes the composite and checks your bite using articulating paper to avoid misalignment.
Chipped Tooth Repair Options: Dental Veneers
Unlike dental crowns, a veneer won’t cover your entire tooth. Dental veneers are thin porcelain or composite shells that are bonded to the front surface of your tooth. They are a purely cosmetic procedure and cannot fix significant tooth damage like dental crowns can. So they are only used for minor chips or teeth with multiple small chips.
Before choosing veneers for your chipped tooth, your dentist performs diagnostic X-rays to determine whether there is underlying dental trauma. If your tooth is healthy aside from the chip, your dentist prepares the tooth for the veneer by shaving off a small layer of enamel. They then take dental impressions to create a mould to send to an offsite lab and fabricate your porcelain veneers.
At your second appointment, your dentist checks the fit of the veneers then cements it in place.
Fix Chipped Teeth at No Gaps Dental
If you have sustained a chipped tooth, the experienced team at No Gaps Dental can help. Visit one of our 15 Sydney locations for cutting-edge CEREC dental crowns or high-quality porcelain veneers to rejuvenate your smile. Call us today on (02) 8806 0227 for a consultation.
References
What’s the Hardest Substance in the Human Body?
https://www.healthline.com/health/hardest-substance-in-the-human-body
Repairing a Chipped or Broken Tooth
https://www.webmd.com/oral-health/guide/repairing-a-chipped-or-broken-tooth
Four Options For Fixing A Chipped Tooth
https://www.colgate.com/en-us/oral-health/dental-emergencies-and-sports-safety/fixing-a-chipped-tooth-fast