Even the best-cared teeth can accidentally become chipped or cracked. A broken tooth can occur if you bite down too hard on popcorn or other hard foods or are in the habit of crunching ice cubes. Teeth can also break if you take an unexpected blow to the mouth or have another accident. Sometimes teeth will break because of untreated tooth decay in Oshawa, as a tiny hole in a tooth can hide a much larger cavity underneath so that eventually, when you bite down, the tooth crumbles away.
Whatever the reason, it’s important to get any damage to a tooth mended as soon as you can to prevent further injury and infection. The good news is that modern dentistry has many options available, and Margolian Dentistry uses the latest diagnostic techniques and treatments to provide the best solution for a broken tooth. Possible options include:
-
Porcelain Crowns
A porcelain crown covers the entire tooth and is especially useful when it is more severely damaged and has lost a significant part of its original structure. The crown fits right over the tooth down to the gum line, so you cannot see any of the original tooth underneath. It is an excellent treatment for preserving and protecting a tooth and restoring its appearance.
Here at Margolian Dentistry, we can sometimes provide same-day crowns in Whitby using CEREC technology. With this option, we prepare the tooth, scan it using a tiny handheld camera and create a digital design for your new crown. The design is sent to our on-site milling machine, where your new crown is made from a solid block of pre-shaded porcelain before it is hand finished and ready to fit.
-
Porcelain Veneers
Sometimes, a tooth with a small chip or crack can be covered with a porcelain veneer. The veneer fits over the front surface of a tooth and is bonded in place. Our porcelain veneers in Ajax are created using the latest digital technologies to provide a precise fit and optimal appearance.
-
Dental Filling
A dental filling is ideal when a tooth is broken due to a cavity. First, we must prepare the tooth by removing all the decay, carefully shaping the cavity before placing tooth-coloured composite resin, which seals and protects the cavity. The composite resin is hardened with a blue light and shaped to look good and feel comfortable.
-
Dental Bonding
Dental bonding is a quick and cost-effective treatment to fix a small chip or crack in a tooth. We use tooth-coloured composite resin that is applied directly to the tooth and hardened with a blue light before being carefully shaped and polished to create a natural lustre and appearance.
-
Root Canal Therapy
Sometimes a very deep cavity can reach the dental pulp in the tooth’s centre, causing infection. The pulp can also become inflamed if you take a blow to a tooth. An inflamed or infected dental pulp can feel very painful, and root canal treatment is a procedure to remove the damaged pulp tissue, eliminating the infection and ensuring the tooth feels much more comfortable and pain-free. After having root canal therapy, the tooth will most likely need a dental crown. This is because the damage to the tooth is likely to be quite substantial, and placing an ordinary filling wouldn’t restore the tooth to its full strength. Covering the tooth with a crown ensures you can bite and chew in complete comfort and with total confidence.
If you have damaged a tooth recently, please make an appointment to come and see us so we can assess the damage and discuss suitable options to restore the tooth, protecting and preserving it.