No one could predict when you would need a broken tooth treatment. You may have caught yourself biting on hard food or experiencing a facial trauma. Hence, you need to know the necessary steps to preserve and save your tooth from being extracted.
What to do when you need a broken tooth treatment?
Gather the pieces of the broken tooth.
It may happen within a snap, and you begin to feel a piece of tooth on your tongue. Worse, the pieces may be scattered on the ground. Yes, you may feel a sting before you realize you broke your tooth, however, you have to collect the pieces. As much as you can, gather all pieces and place them in a container with milk.
See your dentist immediately.
Take some medications for a broken tooth pain relief. Also, gargle with a mixture of salt and water to clean your mouth. If time allows, contact your dentist, explain what led to the incident, and rush to his clinic. Take the broken pieces with you for him to examine and put them back together. On your way, apply a cold compress on the area to prevent swelling.
Your dentist will clean your broken tooth and examine the severity of the damage. Also, he will take dental X-rays and discuss the most suitable broken tooth treatment for your dental case.
Dental procedures for a broken tooth treatment
Dental veneers
This is the most appealing option especially when you’ve broken your front teeth. Veneers are thin dental laminates placed on the teeth surfaces, perfect to cover the damage. Your choice of material would be porcelain or composite resin. Porcelain dental veneers are a more popular choice since porcelain closely matches the look of your natural teeth.
Application of veneers
- The dentist numbs you with a local anesthetic and prepares the tooth that needs treatment. As the anesthesia kicks in, you’ll slowly experience a broken tooth pain relief.
- He etches and remove a portion of the tooth enamel to make room for the veneer.
- He takes an impression of the treated tooth and sends it to the dental technician. Your veneers will be created in a week or two.
- He places temporary veneers so you don’t go home with a broken smile.
- After two weeks, you return to his clinic for the permanent veneers. He removes the temporary veneers and prepares to bond the final veneers.
- He applies a solution to each veneer, air-dries it, and places a cement so it bonds to the tooth.
- He uses an ultraviolet light to cure the cement and speed up the bonding process.
- He removes excess cement from your teeth to finalize the treatment.
Dental crown or cap
A crown, also called as a dental cap, fully encases the damaged tooth. Your dentist uses it if the crack is too large that a dental filling won’t be enough to cover the tooth. You can choose from porcelain, ceramic, and porcelain fused with metals for the material of your crowns. This broken tooth treatment is performed in six steps:
Dental crown procedure
- To make you feel relaxed, your dentist numbs the treatment area.
- He removes a portion of your tooth so a crown can fit into it.
- He takes an impression of the tooth that will receive the crown and its opposite. He sends it to the laboratory who produces the dental cap.
- A temporary crown is placed to cover the damaged tooth to prevent bacterial infection.
- On your next visit, the permanent crown is ready and your temporary one is removed.
- He places the final crown to check its fitting. Once it’s settled, he cements it permanently to ensure a complete broken tooth pain relief.
You don’t need to prolong the pain when you have a broken tooth. There are immediate dental services in London, Ontario available for you. Let the dentist save and restore your damaged tooth for good.