Chipped front toothChipped front tooth
A tooth can break all at once from a blow, or crumble little by little from grinding or wear. The two need different care. If the cause remains, the same spot breaks again even after treatment. At Wonjin Dental Clinic, we first check how large the chip is and what caused it.
On this page
First, we look at the cause
Two cases can look the same and still need different treatment if the cause is different. If you fix only the shape and leave the cause, the same problem usually comes back in the same place.
I hit my tooth and chipped it a little. Is it enough to just fill in the shape?
The shape can be rebuilt the same day. But the impact may also have reached the nerve inside, so that tooth needs to be checked over time.
Even if only a small piece seems to have come off the surface, the impact travels through the whole tooth. Nerve damage does not show right away. Months or years later, that one tooth may turn darker or show inflammation at the root tip. If only the shape is rebuilt on the day it chipped and nothing more is done, this change is missed.
This is when
You remember the day it chipped, and the broken edge is sharp. Only one or two teeth are affected.
Then
We rebuild the shape the same day and recheck at set intervals whether the nerve is alive. If a large piece broke off and the nerve is exposed, the order is reversed.
What we look at first
I have never hit them, but my front teeth keep chipping little by little.
Grinding your teeth during sleep is the likely cause. The edges of the front teeth take that force head-on.
When you grind, a force several times stronger than chewing goes on for hours. When you are awake, biting hard hurts and you stop, but during sleep that brake does not work. So the edges of the front teeth chip bit by bit and become flat. This is not a one-time accident but a cause that is still going on.
This is when
Your jaw feels stiff in the morning, and the edges of your upper and lower front teeth are flat as if cut with a ruler. Not one tooth but several are worn together.
Then
If only the shape is rebuilt and the cause is left, the new part chips before your natural tooth does. We first look for a way to reduce the force or absorb it.
What we look at first
A front tooth I had filled before came off again.
The tooth did not break again. The material that was bonded to it came off. If the same spot keeps coming off, it is time to change the method.
Composite resin is a material bonded to the tooth, so after a few years the edge opens up very slightly. If decay forms again through that gap, the tooth underneath softens and holds even less, so the time between each loss gets shorter.
This is when
The spot that came off is where you had treatment before. The broken surface is subtly different from the tooth color, and the edge is clearly visible.
Then
We do not just bond it back on. We check the condition underneath. If this is the third time the same spot has come off, it means bonding itself cannot withstand that force.
What we look at first
The edges of my front teeth are turning see-through and crumbling.
They have been thinned by acid. Thinned edges can break even under normal biting.
Soda, fruit and stomach acid from reflux slowly dissolve the tooth surface. The edges of the front teeth are thin to begin with, so the change shows there first. You can see through them, and they look clear like glass. In this state, even if the broken part is filled in, the surrounding tooth keeps dissolving.
This is when
The edges of your front teeth are see-through, and the teeth have become shorter overall. Not one but several front teeth look the same.
Then
We first cut off what is dissolving the teeth. Then we restore the lost thickness. If the order is reversed, the teeth start dissolving again from the edges of the new material.
What we look at first