cracked tooth
Cracked teeth are partial fractures appearing on the crowns of your teeth. They may extend under your gums. Some of these cracks may cause a little pain, and others may lead to severe pain and discomfort. The causes of cracked teeth are accidents, injuries, weak dental restorations, and others.
What are the Types of Cracked Teeth?
Craze Lines are small and vertical cracks formed on your enamel. Craze lines are harmless and barely need treatment. They do not result in pain or discomfort.
Fractured Cusp are easy to diagnose and treat, developing in the teeth with cavities and large dental fillings. They do not spread to the pulp of your teeth. Although fractured cusps do not cause pain, they may lead to sensitivity to hot and cold foods.
Gumline Cracked Tooth are cracks extend below the gumline. In this situation, you may require a tooth extraction. But if the crack hasn’t reached the gum line, we may restore it with dental procedures like composite bonding and crowns. A gumline cracked tooth may cause a lot of pain and tooth sensitivity.
Split Tooth In some cases, your severely cracked teeth may lead to split teeth or complete fracture. The split extends to the whole surface of your teeth. The causes of split teeth include traumatic injuries, destructive forces to dental restorations, and others.
Vertical Root Fractures spread upward from below your gum line and occur mostly in your teeth treated with a root canal.
How Are Cracked Teeth Treated?
Dental Crowns are the dental caps that we fit over your cracked, damaged, weak or decayed teeth. They are made using several materials – metal, ceramic, composite resin, and others. We will use this restorative option if the crack is severe, but the teeth do not require complete removal.
Dental Bonding procedure is used to bond your cracked teeth using materials such as silver amalgam, gold, composite resin, glass ionomer, and others. Bonding is painless and finishes in one visit only. We will fill the crack with any of these materials and then use a special light to bond them with the surface of your teeth.
Root Canal surgery is performed if the crack has reached your dental pulp. This procedure is also used to restore your inflamed or infected tooth roots.
Tooth Extractions are necessary if the crack extends below your gum line, even a root canal cannot save it. In this situation, we need to remove the teeth and their root pieces. After tooth extraction, we will examine your tooth socket and remove the remaining fragments of teeth.