How to Deal With the Cracked Front Tooth

Accidents can happen to anyone. And when these accidents involve impact to your mouth, it may lead to cracked front tooth or teeth. There can be many things or instances which can result in cracked front tooth. For instance, it can happen when you take a bite of frozen hard foods, getting hit during a sport, or falling down due to uneven sidewalk.

One thing that you need to keep in mind is that you cannot just do things on your own after figuring out that you have a cracked tooth. You cannot even analyze the level of severity and damage by yourself. Therefore, it is recommended to visit the dentist as soon as you can in order to get emergency treatment. It may be worth mentioning here that some of the cracks are superficial and don’t need any treatment. However, the ones that extend below the gum line need to be treated.

Bonding

The cracked front tooth can be restored with the help of bonding. This process mainly involves the use of composite resin which is a material made to show the real colors that of original tooth. It is used to fill the crack. This treatment is the least expensive one and you would require paying fewer visits to the dentist. However, this material is not strong enough as compared to other materials used for tooth restoration. This is the reason that this treatment is best suited for the teeth which do not take a lot of pressure.

Crown

If the crack hasn’t reached under the gum line but is deep enough, you may not find bonding as your option. In this case, you can go for crowning of your teeth. Crown, also known as cap, is usually made of porcelain and its primary purpose is to cover the damaged tooth. The dentist may decide about crowning your front tooth if there not much of the tooth left. Since this treatment is going to require a lot of measurement and careful filling, you may need to visit your dentist multiple times.

Root canal

Root canal treatment is another way to get your cracked tooth treated. Your dentist may decide to do the root canal therapy if the crack has affected the inner part of your tooth. If it is left untreated, the inner part of tooth, also known as pulp, can get infected. The only way to treat an infected pulp is to remove the infected portion of it through a surgical process which involves drilling through the chewing surface. After the removal of infected pulp, dentist would seal the tooth using a filling material.

Implant

If the crack is extended deeper enough to damage the entire structure of the tooth, your dentist may find it more appropriate to remove the entire tooth. In this case, the restorative option you can find more suitable one is dental implant. A dental implant mainly consists of a metal post which acts as the tooth root. On the top of this root, an abutment is attached and then a dental crown is fixed on that abutment.