What Happens If You Leave a Broken Tooth Untreated?

What Happens If You Leave a Broken Tooth Untreated?

September 1, 2022  | IN UNCATEGORIZED

Have you ever hurt your mouth so hard that you thought you broke a tooth? Unfortunately, tooth fractures are very common in dentistry, affecting children and adults alike.

You can break a tooth in many different ways, the popular ones being:

  1. Dental trauma incurred after a facial injury or accident
  2. Eating hard foods like popcorn kernels
  3. Severely grinding teeth at night
  4. Poor oral habits like biting your fingernails or opening cans and lids with your teeth.
  5. Excessive clenching

Symptoms of a Broken Tooth

A tooth fracture will affect you in different ways depending on its severity. The effects of a broken tooth will be felt most when you bite or chew food.

Some of the indicators of a broken tooth are:

  1. A noticeable crack or chip on your tooth – some tooth fractures cost you a sizeable chunk of your tooth enamel.
  2. Tooth sensitivity – especially if the crack is deep enough to damage the nerve endings.
  3. A toothache
  4. Bleeding gums
  5. Swelling around the affected tooth
  6. Dental pain that comes and goes, especially when chewing
  7. Tooth loss

What to Do when you Break Your Tooth

Ideally, you need to contact a dentist immediately if you notice a fracture in your tooth. However, no matter how incredible our dental treatment and services are at StarWhite Dental, you will not always be in our offices at the time of your oral problem.

The time it takes before you visit your facility is crucial to unfolding your oral health.

Therefore, the following tips should help you preserve your oral health without worsening the state of the broken tooth:

  1. Rinse your mouth to keep it clean – you can even gargle salt water to remove any bacteria that may infect the tooth.
  2. Wax the tooth – apply wax on the edges of the broken tooth. It will dull the edges to avoid biting or scraping yourself on accident.
  3. Take over-the-counter pain medication – the medicine will suppress your pain and manage the swelling before you visit your dentist.
  4. Cold compress – apply an ice bag to the affected area to reduce swelling and alleviate pain.

How Can a Cracked Tooth Be Treated?

Broken teeth treatment protocols differ depending on the complexity of the problem. If a tooth breaks, it may be easier to identify and seek treatment than if it merely cracks.

A small crack can be deep yet difficult to self-diagnose. Fortunately, you can always bank on an emergency dentist in Murrieta to conduct both the diagnosis and treatment of your tooth fracture.

Some of the treatment protocols to address a fractured tooth are:

  1. Pain medication – your dentist will still prescribe medicine to manage the pain levels and alleviate the swelling.
  2. Dental filling – repairs, and rebuilds damaged tooth structures, sealing them to prevent bacterial infections to the inner layers.
  3. Composite bonding – is a cosmetic solution to repair the cracked or chipped portion of your tooth enamel.
  4. Dental veneers – are aesthetic alternatives that repair broken teeth, specifically from the front side.
  5. Dental crowns – are oral appliances that replace damaged enamels, encapsulating them as dental caps.
  6. Root canal therapy – is a procedure that treats the insides of a tooth. This treatment will prove beneficial if the tooth fracture causes severe tooth pain, indicating that the nerves and soft tissues in the pulp have incurred damage.
  7. Tooth extraction – is the most extreme measure a dentist can take to treat a broken tooth. Usually, dentists recommend a tooth extraction if the fracture has extensively compromised the tooth’s structure.

What If You Leave Your Tooth Untreated?

The truth is that not all tooth fractures necessitate emergency dental care. Sometimes, the only part of your tooth impacted by the fracture is the enamel.

However, you cannot determine this without a comprehensive dental examination by a dentist.

If you leave a broken tooth untreated for long, anticipate the following dental problems:

  1. Tooth loss – it may only take one bite for the remaining portion of your tooth to fall off.
  2. Infection – if the crack creates a loophole to the inner layers of your tooth, you can suffer tooth decay.
  3. Severe toothache – over-the-counter medicine only suppresses the discomfort temporarily.
  4. Hypersensitivity of the fractured and adjacent teeth.
  5. Darkening and discoloration of the broken tooth.

Dental Implants

A Dental implant is a tooth made of a titanium post with a replacement tooth (crown) attached to the top. Dental implants can replace a single tooth, several teeth, anchor a dental bridge, or a full arch of teeth.

Wisdom Teeth Removal

If you’ve been told that you need to have one or more of your wisdom teeth removed by our dentist, you may be wondering, especially if you are not currently experiencing any painful symptoms. So, if you want your wisdom teeth removal visit StarWhite Dental.