Accidents are inevitable, and your teeth could be fractured or broken when they happen. Fractured or broken teeth, whether from a sudden fall, an unexpected bite into something hard, or a sports injury, are dental emergencies that you should promptly address. Such emergencies are painful and unsightly and, if untreated, can result in serious complications.
Fortunately, emergency dentists provide solutions to restore function and appearance. At The Hawthorne Dentist, we know how stressful it can be if you have a dental emergency. Therefore, we offer swift, professional dental treatment to restore your teeth’ function. We are ready to help you if you have a fractured or broken tooth or need an emergency appointment.
What Is A Fractured Or Broken Tooth?
A fractured or broken tooth is a crack or break in the structure of your tooth. The damage can be as minor as a chip affecting only the enamel to a severe fracture that penetrates deeper layers and might even expose the nerves and blood vessels in the inner pulp. Typically, such exposure causes discomfort and raises the risk of infection.
Treatment of a tooth fracture depends on the severity of the fracture. Dental chips that are minor may not hurt, and your dentist may smooth them out. However, deep cracks may cause sharp pain when biting down or sensitivity to hot or cold temperatures. The pain might come and go, and you cannot tell which tooth it is unless a professional sees you.
Why Does a Fractured or Broken Tooth Cause Pain?
Your teeth are durable but not invincible. Different factors can compromise them, leading to fractures and breaks. Such damage can result from everyday activities, unexpected accidents, or underlying dental conditions.
Sports Injuries
Contact sports like football, basketball, and hockey are common causes of dental injuries.
A tooth can easily fracture or break due to not wearing the proper protective gear after a sudden collision or fall. This damage can happen due to force from an elbow to the face, a high-speed fall, or a ball striking the teeth.
You cannot always prevent accidents during high-intensity sports, but wearing a mouthguard can significantly decrease your chances of fracturing your teeth. A properly fitted mouthguard absorbs much of the impact and protects your gums, jaw, and teeth.
Also, when your kids are doing sports, they should have one since young teeth are especially vulnerable to damage. Most sports-related dental injuries can be prevented simply by taking precautions and selecting the proper protective equipment.
Accidents and Falls
Accidents or falls are other leading causes of fractured and broken teeth. A fall, whether a slip on a wet surface, tripping over an obstacle, or a sudden misstep, can immediately affect your dental health. Teeth can be cracked, broken, or knocked out when a blow hits the mouth, primarily if the fall occurs on a hard surface, such as concrete.
The severity of the injury can vary depending on the impact angle or force, age, and oral health. For example, softer, pliable teeth in younger people may not be as damaged after a fall as in adults, which tend to be more brittle. It does not matter how bad the injury is; it must be dealt with quickly to avoid infection or misalignment.
If you have a fall that damages your teeth, rinse your mouth with warm water to wash away any dental damage and stop bleeding. If a tooth is knocked out or dislodged, keep it moist and see your dentist immediately. The sooner you seek treatment, the better the chances your tooth can be saved.
Teeth Grinding (Bruxism)
Bruxism, or teeth grinding, is an often overlooked condition that can cause extensive damage to teeth over time. Grinding your teeth can wear down the enamel, creating cracks or breaks in the teeth, especially during sleep. This unconscious habit is associated with stress, anxiety, or an abnormal bite and can have a cumulative, slowly progressive effect on your teeth.
You can also grind teeth when you clench your teeth, for example, when you are tense or having difficulty concentrating. Repeated force on your teeth makes the enamel increasingly compromised, putting you at risk of fractures. If not treated, bruxism can cause other dental problems, including worn-down tooth surfaces, gum recession, and tooth sensitivity, making the teeth weaker and more likely to fracture.
The symptoms of bruxism include jaw pain, headaches, and noticeable wear patterns on the teeth. If you have these symptoms or think you are grinding your teeth, seek dental advice. If your dentist thinks you grind or clench your teeth, they may suggest a mouthguard to help protect your teeth from the damage these actions can cause, particularly at night. Sometimes, fixing misalignments in your bite or addressing the root cause of stress can significantly reduce tooth damage risk.
Tooth Decay
Fractured and broken teeth are among the most common tooth problems and the easiest to prevent. If cavities, which occur when plaque and bacteria build-up and are not treated, keep growing over time, they can eat away at the tooth structure in the affected area and weaken the tooth. In the early stages, tooth decay may not hurt, but it can cause serious problems, such as fractures, as it worsens.
If the decay goes deep enough into the tooth, the tooth’s outer protective layer, the enamel, can be compromised. Thus, the tooth is more prone to external forces, such as biting hard foods or accidental impacts. Over time, the weakened tooth can crack or break, and the exposed areas can result in pain due to sensitivity or infection. In severe cases, the decay can reach into the pulp of the tooth, which can cause excruciating pain, extensive treatment like a root canal, or even tooth loss.
Maintaining good oral health and the longevity of your teeth involves preventing tooth decay. Brushing and flossing regularly and going to the dentist regularly to remove the plaque and bacteria that cause decay are essential to preventing decay.
Your dentist may also suggest fluoride treatments or dental sealants, for example, to help protect your teeth in the most challenging areas to clean. If you believe that you have a case of tooth decay or have any symptoms, including tooth sensitivity, discoloration, or bad breath, you should see a dentist immediately to stop the damage from worsening.
Biting Hard Foods
Tooth fractures can occur when you bite hard foods like candy, ice, nuts, popcorn kernels, or fruit pits. Chipping, cracking, or even breaking teeth results from excessive pressure on teeth weakened by decay, wear, or fillings. Enamel is strong but brittle and prone to cracking, especially under force, and if a crack reaches the pulp, it will cause pain and more damage.
To avoid this, avoid hard foods, remove pits, and cut food into smaller pieces. If tooth damage is frequent, consult a dentist for advice regarding strengthening teeth or other protective treatments such as dental crowns. Good eating habits can help reduce the risk of tooth damage.
Dental Treatments
Even some dental treatments can break or fracture teeth, particularly if the tooth is weakened. Sometimes, crowns, fillings, or root canals are needed to restore damaged teeth, but restoring the tooth can stress the tooth.
For example, a filling that is too large or placed incorrectly will put pressure on the surrounding tooth structure, increasing its vulnerability to cracking. Teeth that have undergone root canal treatment can become brittle over time and more prone to fractures.
Dental procedures are usually safe and help maintain teeth, but following your dentist’s aftercare instructions to the letter is essential to avoid post-treatment fractures. This allows your restorations to remain in place and your teeth to continue working correctly.
Types of Tooth Fractures
How a tooth break affects its treatment options and the amount of damage. To make proper treatment decisions, you must know how different fractures affect teeth. Diverse tooth fractures range from minor surface cracks without damage to major splits that weaken the tooth structure and need special treatment.
Split Tooth
A split tooth happens when the damage in a tooth goes deep from the top to the root and splits it into two parts. When you bite into food, you notice intense pain and detect gaps in your tooth’s structure, most obviously when your tooth pulp or tissues near it become exposed. Without treatment, it may require extraction. The dentist can save fractured parts of your tooth using restorative treatments, provided the damage is not too severe. Prompt dental care is crucial to saving the tooth.
Fractured Cusp
When a tooth’s chewing surface cracks into parts due to stress near a filling or weak spot, we call this a fractured cusp. The break in a tooth’s chewing surface generally produces minor discomfort while eating and is sensitive to hot and cold temperatures.
Fractures often appear when you bite hard objects or when dental decay creates weak spots in your teeth. When ignored, this problem allows decay and infection to develop inside the tooth. Your dentist must remove the broken part and place a crown or onlay to protect the tooth from worsening.
Craze Lines (Hairline Cracks)
Craze lines develop naturally as tiny surface cracks that form from age and dental behaviors, including biting your nails. These marks appear as thin lines that run straight down teeth and become darker from consuming coffee, tea, and wine.
These cosmetic marks mainly hurt self-esteem. Dental treatments like whitening and dental bonds help patients achieve better tooth looks. Proper tooth care, reducing tooth strain, and receiving dental care allow you to stay on top of craze lines.
Cracked Tooth
A cracked tooth becomes a primary dental concern because it develops deep within the tooth structure, which leads to pain and sensitivity when eating. The condition develops from traumatic events or due to teeth grinding, biting hard objects, and exposure to extreme temperatures.
Weak teeth from untreated decay make them more likely to develop cracks. A professional must use X-rays or dyes to find cracks because they often remain invisible. The level of damage decides whether you need tooth bonding or crowns for small cracks or root canal treatment and tooth removal for deep problems.
Vertical Apical Root Fracture
A vertical root fracture begins at the tip of the tooth root and moves upwards without symptoms but becomes painful when it causes infection. This problem develops from traumatic events and happens when dentists use too much force during tooth treatments, as well as from teeth grinding or clenching habits.
Mild tooth discomfort leads to visible gum inflammation and eventually leads to abscesses or bone damage. Medical tests, like X-rays, help your dentist discover if something is wrong with your tooth. After tooth removal, patients need dental implants or bridges to bring back normal tooth function.
Oblique Root Cracks
When a tooth root cracks diagonally, it loses its support and no longer connects well to the bone and gum tissues. Damage happens when teeth endure blows while clenching and biting hard things, especially after root canal treatments weaken teeth.
You may feel sudden bites of pain during chewing, tooth sensitivity, or gum tissue inflammation. Diagnosis involves X-rays or advanced imaging. When treating tooth cracks, dentists use dental bonding or crowns for minor issues and extract damaged teeth for more serious cases before installing replacement options like implants or bridges.
Oblique Subgingival Cracks
Cracks that start below the gumline at an angle damage both the tooth base and its periodontal connections. These cracks often emerge from tooth grinding or trauma that weakens treated teeth. The damage symptoms show up later as pain during chewing, swelling, or gum infections. Diagnosis requires X-rays or advanced imaging.
Medical teams treat these issues through dental crowns or surgery to repair damage when needed. They extract and replace severely broken teeth with implants and bridgework. Being checked by a dentist regularly helps prevent dental problems.
Oblique Supragingival Cracks
An oblique supragingival crack runs diagonally across the visible part of your tooth above the gum line. Supragingival cracks allow easier detection yet damage and hurt teeth like deeper subgingival cracks. Damage from biting hard objects, dental decay, oversized dental work, or teeth grinding leads to supragingival cracks.
Different crack types show up as surface lines and affect how temperature or bite pressure feels. Dentists treat small tooth cracks by fixing them or placing dental crowns and root canal treatments for severe fractures. Protecting teeth from hard food’s impact and managing teeth-grinding habits is essential to maintaining good oral health.
Symptoms of a Broken or Fractured Tooth
Identifying broken or fractured tooth symptoms at the first sign helps prevent the problem from worsening and initiate proper treatment sooner. The signs of a fractured tooth depend on where and how badly the tooth breaks.
- Pain or Discomfort. If your tooth is damaged, you will feel pain in your mouth during eating activities. The ache returns randomly because the tooth crack touches the sensitive pulp, which may result in swelling or infection.
- Sensitivity. When you eat hot, cold, or sweet foods, your dentin or pulp may be exposed through damaged enamel, creating painful sensitivity. The tooth will become more sensitive because bacteria can enter the damaged area.
- Visible Damage. Cracks or broken tooth pieces show that your tooth’s structure has weakened. Untreated damage will accelerate the development of tooth decay.
- Changes in Tooth Color. When the blood supply to a cracked tooth is blocked, the tissue dies, turning the tooth gray or brown. You need to see a dentist right away.
- Swelling or Gum Tenderness. You need quick dental care when your gums swell, or your tooth hurts because of an infection.
- Difficulty Chewing. Your discomfort when chewing makes you eat less and use only one side of your mouth, which causes your teeth to wear unevenly.
- Unexplained Headaches or Jaw Pain. When teeth fracture, they put extra strain on jaw muscles, which can create tension headaches or TMJ pain. Taking care of dental problems can help reduce discomfort.
How to Handle a Fractured and Broken Teeth Emergency
Taking care of broken teeth quickly helps stop pain, stops bleeding, and improves treatment. Here are the key steps to follow:
- Stay Calm. Keeping calm helps you assess the dental emergency and take the right actions.
- Rinse Your Mouth. Wash your mouth with warm water to remove blood, bacteria, and waste, and keep the area clean. Light mouth rinsing is recommended, as forceful swishing can further damage your tooth and worsen your pain.
- Save Tooth Fragments. Handle all broken tooth pieces with only the edges to keep them clean and uncontaminated. Wash the pieces by hand, then keep them in plain water or spit, which helps keep them in good shape when you need treatment later.
- Control Bleeding. To stop bleeding, press clean gauze or cloth lightly over the wound for about ten minutes or until it stops. Contact a dentist right away if you are bleeding too much, or it will not stop.
- Use a Cold Compress. Place an ice pack on your cheek near the injury to help decrease both pain and swelling. During treatment, wrap a cold compress in a cloth and apply it to your injured area for 10 to 15 minutes.
- Take Pain Relief Medication. To help control pain immediately, you can buy ibuprofen or acetaminophen from the pharmacy. Follow your dentist’s directions on taking medicine, and ask them to check in if you need help.
- Protect Sharp Edges. Until you can see a dentist, protect your tongue and cheek and avoid contact with a damaged tooth by covering its sharp edges with dental wax or sugar-free gum.
- Seek Immediate Dental Care. To fix a broken tooth quickly, call your dentist immediately for help. Tell your dentist what you are going through and what happened to your tooth so they can decide which cases to treat first. If you wait too long to receive care, you increase the risk of developing infections or causing more problems for your teeth.
- Follow your dentist’s care plan exactly, including checking back regularly, making necessary food choices, and taking daily care. Your dentist will tell you which fix-it treatments they recommend to return your tooth to normal and heal completely.
Diagnosing Broken or Fractured Teeth
To diagnose a cracked or broken tooth, dentists must analyze your symptoms alongside their medical knowledge and special dental equipment. Dentists apply specific methods to discover tooth damage and develop proper treatment.
- Patient History. Your dentist starts by learning about your symptoms and medical background. Dentists want to know when your pain started and what causes it, along with asking if you have experienced falls or blows recently. The dentist checks if you grind your teeth to find what could damage them. The collected data helps them decide what steps to take next.
- Clinical Examination. The dentist studies the mouth area by looking at the hurt tooth and nearby gum tissue to find damage, swelling, or color changes. During this step, dentists examine tooth structures to find small cracks and surface flaws, which help determine if the problem affects one tooth or more.
- Tactile Examination. Dentists use a dental explorer tool to sense any damage to teeth. Their hands-on evaluation works with visual inspections to find small surface changes that could mean a tooth break.
- Dental Imaging. X-rays reveal hidden fractures plus track down any cracks or damage to the tooth roots and decayed areas. Advanced CBCT imaging technology shows precise 3D pictures of the tooth and its bone support structure to help dentists evaluate better.
- Use of Magnification and Specialized Tools. Special magnification tools help dentists find tiny fractures that cannot be seen without these tools.
- Bite Tests. The dentist applies bite tests to find fractures that hurt when patients release pressure. Patients help detect vertical tooth cracks that bother the pulp under pressure by biting on cotton rolls or sticks.
- Pulp Testing. To check pulp health, dentists apply cold heat and electric signals to test the dental nerve layers. The test shows how well or poorly the tooth’s inner layers function, which helps dentists choose the best treatment for damaged teeth.
- Computer-Aided Diagnosis. Digital tools analyze tooth structures to detect fractures and measure their depth while forecasting treatment results. These systems improve traditional testing by providing precise outcomes quickly.
Find an Experienced Emergency Dentist Near Me
When you have a dental emergency like a broken or fractured tooth, taking fast action and seeing a dentist immediately help you receive quick treatment. A dentist can help with quick pain relief, accurate diagnoses, or complex repair work.
Our team at The Hawthorne Dentist handles dental emergencies carefully and expertly. If you have a dental emergency, such as a broken or fractured tooth, call us at 310-775-2557 to arrange your emergency dental visit.
