Treatment for Broken Teeth in Glen Cove, NY

Your tooth can break from anything as simple as biting into an apple to something as traumatic as an accident.  Broken teeth may or may not necessarily cause immediate pain.  If the break has extended into the nerve, you might experience occasional discomfort when chewing, or severe sensitivity to hot and cold.  In most instances, however, fractures or chipping of teeth do not cause much discomfort aside from sharp edges that may be uncomfortable to your cheeks and tongue.  Whether you are in pain or not, all breaks should be evaluated by our office as soon as possible in order to check the health and structural integrity of the tooth, and to provide necessary treatment to prevent further complications from occurring. 
 
If you have chipped or cracked a tooth, it may be a dental emergency, or it may not. Some damage to your tooth needs to be looked at as soon as possible, but other times you can postpone treatment for a chipped tooth until it’s convenient.  But how do you know which is which? Here are some factors and guidelines to consider.

If your broken, fractured, chipped or cracked tooth is the result of trauma to your head or face and it is accompanied by bleeding from the nose or ears, loss of memory or consciousness, dizziness, disorientation, severe head or ear ache or if your teeth do not fit together properly after the trauma, go to a hospital emergency room for evaluation immediately.  It is imperative that you rule out any possible injury to your brain, jawbones or surrounding soft tissue.  If that is noted to be the case, you will require immediate emergency medical care to address your injuries first.  Don't bother calling our office first, have an emergency physician evaluate you right away.  

Fortunately, most injuries are much less severe.  If you're experiencing any one of the following situations, you can safely wait to call our office during normal business hours and we'll get you in right away in order to evaluate and treat the situation promptly:

Depending on the condition of the rest of the tooth, they may be an early sign that the tooth is weakening and may require dental treatment to prevent a more complex fracture from occurring.  When they occur on anterior teeth, they can be unsightly when smiling and present an aesthetic concern.  For this reason many patients may want to consider treatments such as porcelain crowns or veneers to help strengthen and enhance the esthetic appearance of those teeth.

It is very common in most cases, despite how large the size of the fracture may be, not to have any discomfort at all.  In some cases, fractured teeth may cause some sensitivity to hot or cold because the enamel that was once there is not present anymore.  This leaves the more sensitive inside layer of your tooth, the dentin, exposed to the outside environment.  Feeling some slight to moderate sensitivity in this case is normal and expected.  In both cases, the tooth can wait to be addressed at a more reasonable time and it is very unlikely that any further damage may occur during this short delay.  These teeth will need crowns for additional support but, depending on other relevant circumstances, may avoid root canal treatment.  

If the extent of the fracture is very deep and encroaches upon, or extends into the nerve of the tooth, patients will experience more severe discomfort.  In this case, the fracture not only breaks off a portion of the tooth but is deep enough to expose the nerve and irritate it causing more intense symptoms.  If this is the case, often times the broken part of the tooth may bleed.  This is a more urgent situation and If you notice a large portion of the tooth missing with bleeding present, it is important to contact our office right away in order to help control symptoms.  Even if after hours, we will call in a prescription for antibiotics for you to help stave off any possibility of infection.  Treatment will involve Root Canal therapy in addition to a crown if nerve involvement or infection is indeed confirmed.  

Until you can get to our office, there are some things you can do to ease any pain or discomfort that might be associated with the tooth.  

Teeth with minor chips on the edges usually don’t cause any pain or problems, but to maintain the integrity of your tooth we may suggest a repair by smoothing the edge or placing a tooth-colored filling. This will prevent the rough edge from cutting your lips or tongue and preserve the aesthetic appearance of the tooth in question.  In addition, if numerous chips and craze lines may be present and compromising the appearance of your front teeth, you may want to consider esthetic treatments such as porcelain veneers to not only help strengthen your teeth but to also enhance their aesthetic appearance.
 
Heavily fractured and seriously broken teeth may require more complex treatments, as these problems may be due to dental decay or other underlying issues. A large cavity can cause fractures and, if left untreated, can become extremely painful and result in further tooth breakdown.  In cases where the fracture is deep enough to involve the nerve, root canal treatment may be necessary. Cracks and breaks that expose your nerve endings, result in infections or make the teeth extremely sensitive to hot and cold will be indicted for root canal therapy along with a crown.  

Root canal treatment isn’t always necessary for cracked and chipped teeth, however. Where there’s no pain, infection, or nerve involvement, fractured and cracked teeth can be treated with a full coverage crown to reinforce and strengthen the tooth. Crowns are also used as an integral strategy against preventing further cracks by restoring and maintaining the structural integrity of the tooth. 

Unfortunately, not every case of a fractured tooth can be saved.  A tooth with a crack that extends well beneath the gum line and into the roots cannot always be saved.  A tooth that has fractured into two separate pieces will also have to be extracted and replaced.  In both these cases, our primary immediate goal is to get you comfortable, out of any pain and stabilize the situation.  We will then formulate a treatment plan, including appropriate replacement options that suits you best, and coordinate a plan of action with our surgical specialists to have the tooth removed and properly replaced.