Just Smile: What to Do in Case of a Broken Tooth

There are few things in the world quite as painful and distracting as a chipped or broken tooth, and most of us will go through this at least a couple of times in or lives. While the experience might be almost overwhelming in its severity, the thing to remember is that there are plenty of solutions to be found, courtesy of your trusted dentist. Don’t suffer needlessly; pay your dentist a visit as soon as possible.

Let’s take a look at some of the remedies they have at hand to relieve you of your dental misery.

•Dental Bonding

In cases where the damage to your tooth or teeth is visible once you show your pearly whites in a smile, your dentist will likely suggest that you go for a dental bonding procedure. Here, the dentist will first roughen the surface of your tooth using a special gel so that the bonding substance will have a good hold. Once this is done, an adhesive will be applied to the tooth, followed up by the tooth-colored resin, which is what will be tweaked and prodded to a likeness of a natural tooth surface. Ultra-Violet light will then be focused on the tooth to harden it to a realistic strength and toughness.

•Dental Filling

This is one of those procedures whose name says it all. Here, your dentist will basically use a dental material to literally fill up the missing parts of your dental structure. Such materials include ceramics, composite resins, glass isomer cement, or others, all depending on the specifics of your case. The point, as in all the procedures listed here, will be to fully restore the integrity, function, and aesthetics of your missing dental structure. 

•Dental Crowns

Dental crowns, or dental caps if you aren’t too keen on royal terminology, are implemented by dentists in cases where the decay or breakage is relatively large. Here, your dentist will file away or grind off a portion of the remaining tooth structure, and proceed to cover it using a tooth-shaped crown, or cap.

This will protect and aesthetically improve your dental formula. Ceramics, resin, metal, or combinations of these will be used for the best permanent effect.

•Dental Veneers

In cases where the very front teeth are affected, your dentist might suggest dental veneers to take care of your situation. Here, a relatively thin shell of resin composite, porcelain, or other suitable material will be used to entirely cover up the face of the tooth – much like a fingernail is covered over by a false fingernail. A thickened section of the veneer will be employed to fill up the missing tooth structure.

•Root Canal Therapy

Should you be in a situation where the damage to your tooth is great enough to expose the pulp of your tooth (this is the bundle of nerves and blood vessels at the heart of every tooth), then a root canal procedure will likely be indicated. Here, an endodontist, or root canal specialist, will remove the pulp which will likely be experiencing infection due to exposure to the multitude of bacteria found in the mouth. Once this pulp is taken out, the remaining tooth will be covered up through a regular crowning procedure.