What Happens When You Neglect Getting a Cracked Tooth Extracted?
There are many reasons for the occurrence of a cracked tooth in your mouth. The crack can result from biting on complex foods, grinding your teeth when sleeping, or naturally as you age. However, it is a familiar problem and the primary reason for tooth loss in developed nations. When you develop a cracked tooth, you experience intermittent pain when chewing or biting, sensitivity to temperatures, and swelling of the gums around the broken tooth. If you think you have a cracked tooth, you must schedule an appointment with the Tahoe Dentist to determine whether it is repairable or needs extraction.
How Would You Know Your Tooth Is Cracked?
Understanding you may have a cracked tooth is pretty challenging because sometimes, even x-rays do not reveal cracks, and not everyone displays similar symptoms. However, if you wish to determine whether a cracked tooth is present in your mouth causing some of the symptoms described earlier, you can seek emergency dental care to determine whether something is wrong in your mouth. The dentist conducts various exams to detect the crack, and you bite down on something to see if you experience pain.
It will help if you realize a cracked tooth may have craze lines, fractured cusps, a split tooth, a vertical root fracture, or cracks extending into the gum line. If you have a cracked tooth with breaks below the gum line, you may require emergency tooth extraction near me to prevent additional complications in your mouth. The sooner you have a damaged or cracked tooth treated, the better your chances of saving the tooth.
How Are Cracked Teeth Treated?
The emergency dentist in South Lake Tahoe, CA, examines the size of the crack, its location, the symptoms, and whether the crack extends below the gum line to determine which treatment best suits your needs. Depending on your unique situation, the dentist recommends one of the following treatments:
Dental Bonding
Dental bonding is a conservative treatment for protecting teeth with minor chips and cracks completed in a single visit to the Lake Tahoe dentist. You don’t need any anesthesia for this treatment because the dentist uses plastic resin to fill the crack and restore the tooth’s appearance and functionality.
Dental Crowns
Dental crowns are prosthetic devices made from porcelain or ceramic. Dental crowns help encase your tooth entirely to protect it from further damages. When fitting dental crowns, the dentist files your tooth enamel to accommodate the restoration. Your tooth impressions taken by the dentist help the dental laboratory to custom create your personalized dental crown. The process requires a couple of weeks after tooth preparation, but you receive a temporary crown over the injured tooth for protection. When the dental lab returns your customized crown, you can revisit the dentist to bond it over the prepared tooth.
Endodontic Therapy
If you have an extensive crack extending to the dental pulp, your dentist may recommend consulting s specialist for endodontic treatment. In such cases, you may have to undergo the fearsome root canal treatment for infected pulp removal and restore the tooth’s integrity. In addition, endodontic treatment helps prevent the tooth from becoming infected or weakened further.
Tooth Extraction
If the crack has extended to the nerves and roots below it and damaged them, the sole option is to extract the tooth and look for replacement solutions.
What Complications Can You Experience with a Cracked Tooth?
The most significant complications of a cracked tooth affect you are infections spreading to the bone and gums. In addition, you can develop a dental abscess causing fever, swollen gums, sensitivity to temperatures, pain when eating, and tender glands in the neck. In such cases, dentists drain the pus from the infection and prescribe antibiotics to kill the bacteria.
Prevention and Self-Care Tips for Cracked Teeth
Treating a cracked tooth at home isn’t practical, but you can try preventing a cracked tooth from developing in your mouth. If you maintain good dental hygiene practices, you will likely have strong teeth unlikely to break. You can avoid chewing on hard foods and wear a mouthguard in contact sports. A nightguard helps you prevent grinding your teeth when sleeping by keeping your teeth apart. Unfortunately, suppose all measures fail, and you develop a cracked tooth for any reason. In that case, you must have it treated by spending time and money with an emergency dentist soon as you begin experiencing the symptoms of the damaged tooth.
