Minor and major injuries alike can cause a number of dental maladies that will get worse over time if not treated. It is crucial to get professional dental care immediately if you or a loved one have chipped a tooth in an accident. Although a small chip or crack may seem minor, it can lead to irreversible damage that will be expensive to repair and could lead to pain and discomfort over time. Let’s see the biggest causes of chipped teeth.

There are many ways to fix a chipped or broken tooth. Before making a decision, there are several factors you should consider. Your trusted experts at the office of cosmetic dentistry in Cedar Falls offer dental bonding and veneers as two ways to treat chipped teeth. Below, we are going to explore the top causes of a chipped tooth and match them with treatments that will repair any temporary damage done.

Biggest Causes of Chipped Teeth

Even though our teeth are used for eating, they remain sensitive and delicate parts of our bodies. Tooth enamel, a hard mineral shell that protects teeth from damage, can wear over time. This increases the risk of your tooth being chipped. Anything that is hard enough to scratch or pierce through the outer enamel of your tooth could end up causing a chip that will make small pieces of your tooth fall off over time.

By simply eating hard candy or biting on hard plastic, you can chip your teeth. Bad habits like grinding, gnashing, and clenching your teeth together can also increase the risk of your tooth getting chipped on any of its exposed sides.

Types of Chipped Teeth

Knowing the different types of tooth chips and how serious they are can also help you figure out what caused them in the first place. While you wait for emergency repairs with your dentist, you can take over-the-counter painkillers if you feel pain. There are many types of chips and break you might encounter:

• Front Tooth Chip: Because of their location, your front teeth are more susceptible to cracking and chipping than your molars. However, your front teeth can be chipped on the front or backside.
• Vertical Break: This is the most common type, and it starts at the root and moves up to your tooth. Vertical breaks are typically painful and urgent.
• Split Tooth: There are some teeth that have more than one root set. A broken tooth can result in the tooth splitting into two. This may be painful or just feel highly uncomfortable, and it also increases the likelihood of infection.
• Decay Break: This is when decay or damage to the teeth can cause the teeth to crack horizontally or vertically.

There are many options for treatment. It depends on how severe the damage ends up and whereabouts the chip ends up placed in your tooth.

Getting Dental Treatment

Our dental bonding process is a popular one. The procedure involves applying a dental bonding material to the area. It is then dried using a heating device. This procedure is painless and not invasive. It adds composite material to the damaged area in order to restore the tooth’s structure. It is similar to fixing a crack in the wall or in the kitchen sink, although you want to use approved dental plaster for treatments going into your mouth.

Sometimes, the damage or chip may be too severe for dental bonding to be applied. Tooth extraction is required when this happens. The dentist will then numb the area and extract the tooth. You may then choose to have a crown, bridge, or dental implant to close the gap between your missing teeth.

Get the Best Dental Services ASAP

It is important to get medical attention immediately after suffering an injury. Tooth injuries are no different. You need to find a treatment that will prevent the spread of decay and pain. No matter how small or large your tooth is. At West First Dental, we strive to offer urgent and effective treatments for those dealing with dental injuries in Cedar Falls. Get in touch with one of our friendly representatives today and learn more when you talk to us about your chipped teeth ASAP.