As a dentist, we’ve heard it all. Whether it’s falling off your bed and hitting the side, getting elbowed in the face, drinking out of a glass bottle, a car accident, or maybe a sporting accident, a chipped tooth is a real problem, and we see it all the time. I’m Dr. Rachel Miro, and I’m a dentist at Dental Implant and Aesthetic Specialists, and today we’re going to talk about how we fix your chipped tooth.
Initial Assessment
A chipped tooth can really range. It could be a small little chip where all you need is a small fix, or it could be a serious problem. The first thing we do when you come into our office with a chipped tooth is take an X-ray. We’re taking this X-ray to ensure that there’s nothing going on with the tooth. We want to make sure that the chip doesn’t go to the root of the tooth. We want to make sure that there’s no infection involved. We want to make sure that we’re providing you with the best care.
Simple Chip Repair
If the tooth is simply chipped, then it’s a really easy fix. A lot of the time, what we do is take the shade of your tooth. That means we really look at your tooth, see what color it is, and pick the proper color to match your tooth. Then, what we do is we bond on a filling. A filling is a little resin material that’s tooth-colored, and we’ll make sure that your tooth goes back to looking like it did previously.
Larger Chips and Crowns
A lot of times, the chip could be a little bit bigger. It could take up half the tooth or three-fourths of the tooth. If this is the case and there’s not enough surface area to bond on that filling, then you might need a crown. A crown is when we go 360 degrees around your tooth, and we place a porcelain structure on the tooth to make sure that your tooth looks just like it did previously.
Severe Damage and Root Canals
Lastly, if the chip is large enough that it has actually gone into the pulp of the tooth, which is where the blood supply and the nerves of the tooth run through, at this point, the tooth might need a root canal. A root canal is where a specialist, an endodontist, will go in and clean out the entirety of the tooth. They’ll fill it with a little putty material, and then you’ll be able to come to us, and we’ll do a crown for you.
Conclusion
The truth is we see chipped teeth all the time, and patients don’t need to be scared. Dentists have lots of tools to help our patients, and we want to make sure that we get your teeth looking back to how they previously did. I’m Dr. Rachel Miro, and I’m a dentist at Dental Implant and Aesthetic Specialists, and I’m here to help you watch your mouth.