Bloomsburg, Danville, and Lewisburg, PA
Nothing can ruin your day like a dental emergency—especially if you suffer a broken tooth. If your tooth breaks off at the gum line, you may experience severe pain or additional fractures in the tooth. In many cases, a broken tooth represents an urgent situation, and you should contact your dentist as soon as possible. Keep reading as Hamilton Dental Care, an emergency dental office in Bloomsburg explores your treatment options in the event of a broken tooth.
What causes a broken tooth?
Breaking a tooth usually happens unexpectedly and can leave you in pain. Teeth break for different reasons, and sometimes it can be preventable.
However, any of the following can lead a tooth to break:
- Weakness in the tooth from an existing dental restoration, such as a filling
- As part of the aging process
- From biting down on something hard
- From damage caused by decay
- From bruxism (chronic teeth grinding)
- Recurring cavities in the same tooth
- Facial trauma suffered in a sports injury or an accident
How we can treat a broken tooth
Method 1: Crowns
Your Lewisburg dentist can install a crown to replace the entire exterior of a tooth, even if it has sustained significant damage. However, in cases where a tooth has broken off at the gum line, additional procedures may be necessary to build up the existing tooth enough to sustain a crown. We work with two types of crowns: metal-free made of beautiful dental porcelain, or PFM (porcelain-fused-to-metal) that has dental porcelain covering the metal substructure. However, the porcelain matches your other surrounding teeth.
Method 2: Root canal
Sometimes, a broken tooth exposes the soft interior of the tooth—known as the dental pulp. This area of the tooth structure includes the soft tissue, blood vessels, and nerve. In these cases, a root canal may be recommended. Thanks to advances in dental science, getting a root canal in Bloomsburg is more convenient and comfortable than ever. A root canal cleans out the tooth’s chamber and then seals it to prepare the tooth for a permanent restoration. A rubbery filling replaces the tooth’s interior, and we complete the procedure with a crown.
Method 3: Tooth replacement
At Hamilton Dental Care, we believe that preserving your teeth is the best course of action, but there are times when this is not possible. Depending on the extent of the damage or the location of the broken tooth, an extraction may be the best course of action. Once the remaining portion of the tooth has been removed, we can replace it by installing a dental implant. An implant represents the finest method of tooth replacement in restorative dentistry. The implant screw, made of titanium, is inserted surgically into the jawbone. Once the implant heals, we complete the procedure by capping the implant with a crown.
Repairing Broken Teeth in Bloomsburg, Lewisburg, and Danville
As with any medical situation, prevention is the best choice. You can reduce your risk of a broken tooth by limiting the amount of sugar in your diet, wearing a sports guard to protect your teeth while competing in your sport of choice, and refraining from using your teeth as tools. We hope you never experience a broken tooth, but if you do, prompt care is crucial from an experienced dentist. Living with a broken tooth can leave it vulnerable to additional damage from infection or decay, up to and including an infection or a potentially fatal abscess.
You don’t have to live with any of those risks. If you or someone in your family suffers a broken tooth in the areas of Bloomsburg, Danville, and Lewisburg in Pennsylvania, call (570) 387-0533 to make an appointment.
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