Half my tooth broke off
It can be quite arresting if you have a half of your tooth break off when you are eating, talking, or doing nothing at all! Tooth fracture can be related to trauma or advanced stage caries or cavities. In any case, it is important to know how to preserve the tooth or the fragments before an appointment with the dental surgeon.
What are the most common causes?
Generally, dental fractures are linked to trauma during a shock: often slipping in bathtubs or swimming pools or falling from a bicycle or roller skates in children and road accidents and sports accidents in. The tooth can also fracture when it is decayed. The piece of enamel collapses under the force of pressure during chewing. There are risk factors for dental fracture, including:
- A devitalized tooth with a large reconstruction without a crown has a greater risk of fracture
- An anterior tooth with a large composite reconstruction
- The practice of contact sports is a factor favoring dental fracture. One of the riskiest sports? Basketball because players don't wear mouth guards. If you practice a contact sport, it is recommended to wear a mouth guard
A piece of your tooth falls off: what to do?
If a piece of your tooth breaks off, it is important to not touch any part of the root that might have come out as well. Put the tooth in milk if you can, and avoid putting the tooth in water. Get to your dentist with the broken piece of tooth as soon as possible.
Broken and black tooth: what to do?
A tooth that has blackened is a tooth whose dental pulp has been affected. this tooth has turned gray because the tooth is no longer alive. If the tooth is not crowned, it can fracture. If the fracture does not touch the root of the tooth, it is possible to reconstruct the piece of fractured tooth if half of the tooth breaks off. On the other hand, if the fracture goes down along the root, the tooth must be extracted.
Broken tooth inside: what to do?
If the fracture reaches the dental pulp, but the root of the tooth is not fractured, the tooth must be devitalized, reconstructed with a composite resin and a ceramic crown in the color of the tooth is placed. On the other hand, if the fracture has reached the root of the tooth, the tooth is generally not conserved and it must be extracted, then replace this tooth with a prosthetic solution (bridge or an implant).
Broken tooth in a baby: what to do?
Most dental traumas take place on permanent teeth but it can happen on baby teeth as well. When it is a simple fracture, your dentist will polish the protruding edges so that it does not hurt the tongue or the lips. In some cases, they can perform a reconstruction of the tooth. It is recommended that you always consult a dental surgeon when a child has a facial trauma. It is important to check that there is no fracture at the root of a baby tooth because this can cause significant pain, an abscess, a delay in the development of a permanent tooth. If it bleeds a lot, the dental surgeon will also look to see if there is any debris under the gumline.