If you’ve tripped and fallen flat on your face or suffered an accidental blow to the front of your face, you may wonder, “Can a broken tooth be repaired?” Common symptoms of a broken tooth include pain, sensitivity to hot and cold temperatures, and visible cracks or chips in the tooth.
Although teeth are strong, they’re not indestructible. Your oral health can suffer when your teeth:
- are placed under excessive force;
- receive a blow;
- are left weak from tooth decay and cavities;
- chip, crack, or break.
That’s the bad news.
The good news is that, in most cases, a dentist can repair a broken tooth.
If you have a chipped, fractured or broken tooth, the first thing to do is contact an emergency dentist to give you treatment options such as dental crowns and other dental procedures. A broken tooth should always be classed as a dental emergency that can cause inconvenience and discomfort. Failing to do so could increase the chance of further damage to the tooth. A broken tooth can become infected, and eventually, you may lose the tooth.
How To Fix A Broken Tooth At Home
Once you notice a damaged tooth, you can take a few measures to relieve tooth pain until you can see your emergency dentist.
- Rinse your mouth with saltwater and take over-the-counter painkillers like Ibuprofen to ease discomfort.
- If there are any sharp edges, cover them with sugarless chewing gum to prevent harming your tongue or soft tissues.
- Switch to soft foods after the incident and avoid biting down or chewing with the broken tooth.
While you wait for an appointment with your dentist, here are a few first-aid techniques you can use to help reduce pain and swelling:
- Save any broken tooth pieces in a sterile container of milk.
- Rinse your mouth with a saltwater solution to prevent bacterial infection.
- Apply an ice pack intermittently to the side of your face for 15 minutes to reduce swelling.
How To Fix A Broken Tooth With The Help Of Our Expert Dentists
Possible dental treatments to fix a broken tooth include dental bonding, veneers, and inlays or onlays. However, your treatment will likely depend on how badly the tooth is damaged. Your dentist will assess the tooth and determine the best course of action. Let’s take a look at the different treatments your dentist may recommend:
Dental Veneers
Unlike a dental crown covering the entire surface area of the tooth, dental veneers are custom-made shells secured to the tooth’s front surface. They work best as a broken tooth repair when a patient experiences slight chipping or hairline cracking. And, like dental crowns, they are strong, durable and natural-looking to restore and protect the problem tooth beneath while creating an instant flawless look.
Dental Implant
Some broken teeth are so severely damaged that they cannot be saved. When a tooth is damaged beyond repair, the only option is often to remove it completely and replace it with a tooth implant and dental crown. Because a dental implant is anchored directly into the jaw, it forms a solid platform, then topped with a dental crown. This creates a permanent, long-lasting replacement that should blend effortlessly with the patient’s smile.
Dental Bonding
Dental bonding is probably the simplest of all the broken tooth repair options. The process involves blending a composite filling material into the chip or crack, resulting in functional and aesthetic restoration. Unlike dental crowns or veneers, normally completed over several appointments, dental bonding can be successfully applied and hardened in just one sitting so a patient can walk out with a fully restored smile.
Root Canal Therapy
Unfortunately, when cracked or broken teeth are left, bacteria can get into the tooth’s inner chambers, causing discomfort. In these cases, a dentist may suggest root canal treatment to get you out of pain fast. During broken tooth repair, our dentists will clean out the infected chambers (root canals), and the area will be backfilled and sealed so no more infection can take hold. Finally, more often than not, the area is topped with a dental crown to protect it. This gives the tooth back its functionality, effectively saving the tooth.
Tooth Fillings
If your tooth has suffered a cavity rather than a chip, crack or fracture, then a composite (white) or amalgam (silver) tooth filling may be the best solution. This type of broken tooth repair is among the easiest and least invasive of all broken tooth repair options. It is not a long-term fix, lasting anywhere between five to seven years on average, but it’s painless and cost-efficient.
Dental Sealants
Dental sealants are designed to protect a tooth from cavities, cracks or blemishes and are applied to children’s teeth, usually on the molars and premolars, to prevent a broken molar tooth.
If you’re on the fence about which broken tooth repair option to pursue, the good news is that you don’t have to choose your own. Instead, a dentist will help you choose based on several factors, including:
- The complexity or degree of the fracture of the break
- The location of the problem tooth (upper or lower jaw)
- The preferences of the patient
- Budget restraints/cost considerations
Dental Crowns
A dental crown is one of the most common treatments for broken tooth repair.
What Are Dental Crowns?
Dental crowns are tooth-shaped ‘caps’ covering the whole tooth — the visible part above the gum line.
A dental crown protects the tooth from further damage, harmful bacteria, and anything that could cause pain, such as hot and cold temperatures, acid from food and drinks, and pressure.
Dental crowns are the most efficient and expensive of the broken tooth treatments we’ve mentioned. In many instances, dental crowns also require more treatment time. No matter the severity of the tooth damage, a dental crown will fix a broken tooth. We usually recommend dental crowns to treat significant dental damage.
Modern-day dental crowns are made from various materials, including all-porcelain, porcelain fused to metal, and even gold. Your dentist will colour-match a porcelain dental crown to your natural tooth colour so that it blends seamlessly into your smile.
Besides repairing a broken tooth, a dentist will recommend a dental crown when you:
- Have undergone root canal treatment, and your tooth has been left weak.
- Have a cracked, crooked or worn-down tooth.
- Need to cover up a heavily stained tooth.
- Have a cavity in a tooth that is too large to be filled.
How To Fix A Broken Tooth With A Dental Crown Treatment
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Initial consultation
Our dentist will examine the broken tooth for repair during your initial consultation to ensure a dental crown is an appropriate treatment. Having confirmed that to be the case, they will begin the repair process.
First, your dentist will file down the top and sides of the damaged tooth to make room for the dental crown. When a significant amount of the tooth is missing, your dentist may need to build up the tooth structure with filling material so that there is enough for the dental crown to cover.
After reshaping the tooth, our dentists will take an impression of the tooth receiving the dental crown. Our dentists will send the impression to a dental lab for the new crown and fit you with a temporary dental crown so you are not walking around missing a tooth.
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Second visit
A second dental visit (some weeks later) is needed to install the permanent dental crown.
At No Gaps Dental, we use on-site advanced CEREC technology to design, mill and install dental crowns in one visit. CEREC tooth crowns are fabricated from hypoallergenic ceramic. This means they are corrosion-resistant and won’t affect those with metal allergies.
We use advanced scanning technology, dental software and equipment to capture 3D images of your mouth and teeth, ensuring your tooth crowns are a perfect fit. Our state-of-the-art milling machinery creates high-quality tooth crowns on-site in 15 minutes, eliminating the need to wait weeks for your custom crowns. This is the way to go when you need a quick fix for a broken tooth.
If your tooth crown has fallen off, a broken tooth repair is still possible, provided the jawbone and gingival tissues are intact. In this instance, the solution is a dental implant to support a prosthetic tooth or crown.
The dental implant procedure is surgical and involves placing a titanium post into the jawbone that acts as an artificial tooth root to anchor a false tooth securely in place.
So, now you have the answer to “Can a broken tooth be repaired?” — there’s no need to panic if the worst happens. There is a solution!
Tooth Extraction
If your tooth is split or broken below the gum line, your dentist may be unable to save it. Extracting a broken tooth is not always a straightforward procedure. The type of break and the tooth’s position will dictate the best course of action.
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Impact Break
An impact break that has caused the tooth to be displaced may require surgical extraction. This involves making an incision in the gum line and removing the bone around the tooth before extracting it.
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Loose Tooth
If the tooth is simply loose, a basic extraction may be all that is needed. This involves using forceps to remove the tooth from the socket. Once the tooth is extracted, there are several restoration options available.
A dental implant can replace a single tooth or a bridge to support multiple missing teeth. In some cases, a partial denture may also be an option. The best restoration option will depend on factors like budget and oral health.
Ways To Prevent A Damaged Tooth
There are a few ways to avoid damaging or breaking a tooth:
- Do not use your teeth to open plastic packaging or remove bottle tops.
- Wear a nightguard to prevent damage if you knowingly grind and clench your teeth at night.
- Limit your consumption of sugary and acidic foods and drinks that contribute to tooth decay.
- Avoid crunching on hard foods such as ice blocks.
- Wear a mouthguard when playing contact sports.
- Visit your dentist for bi-annual check-ups to keep your oral health in tip-top condition.
Do You Have A Damaged Or Broken Tooth To Repair?
If you need an emergency dentist to fix a broken tooth, look no further than No Gaps Dental. We make every effort to fit urgent cases in for same-day emergency treatment and with 17 clinics scattered around the Sydney metro area, there’s sure to be one near you.
Call us today on (02) 8806 0227.
Note: Any surgical or invasive procedure carries risks.