It is hurting to break, crack, or chip your tooth. Several ways can damage your teeth, and you might experience extensive or slight pain depending on the type of injury and your teeth condition.
If the injury is not a minor chip tooth, the only way to fix it will be to visit a dentist. After hurting your tooth, you might be wondering, is there any chipped tooth dentist near me? You must protect your teeth as you attend to the pain. Additionally, remember to avoid further injury by protecting the inside of your mouth.
What Causes Chip Tooth?
You may get a chip tooth from the following.
- Teeth grinding or clenching while sleeping
- Car accidents or falling
- Playing contact sports without wearing a mouthguard
- Biting on hard things, such as hard candy or ice
Complications Related to a Chip Tooth
Extensive chip tooth might affect the tooth roots resulting in infection. Typically the treatment is through a root canal. Below are some symptoms associated with such a condition.
- Swollen glands around the jaw area or in your neck
- Pain as you eat
- Fever
- Sensitivity to cold or hot food and drinks
- Sour taste or bad breath in your mouth
How to Protect Chip Tooth
If you have a tiny chip in your tooth with a jagged edge, you may apply dental wax on top of the edge; this will help you avoid slicing your tongue or hurting your mouth. However, this kind of protection is not advisable for people with a large section of their tooth missing or has a large chip. This is because your tooth might break off when flossing.
You can get OTC temporary kits containing dental wax from a local chip drug store. Avoid using the damaged side of your tooth while chewing. Additionally, to avoid irritation and pressure, try flossing around your affected tooth.
Taking Care of a Broken Tooth or Chip Tooth
If you have a chip tooth, fractured or broken tooth, visit your dentist. Failure to visit your doctor will cause further damage and infect your teeth, possibly resulting in loss of your teeth at the end. In the meantime, try the following self-care measures.
- If the chip tooth has led to a jagged or sharp edge, you may use a piece of sugarless chewing gum or wax paraffin. This will help to avoid cutting the inside of your mouth, your tongue, cheek, or lip.
- If you have a painful chip tooth, you may take some pain relievers. Use saltwater to rinse your mouth.
- If you have eaten, avoid biting down using the chip tooth and take soft foods.
How to Fix a Chipped Tooth
Treatment for a chip tooth or broken tooth usually depends on the extent of your damage. If the injury is minor, with just a small piece of your enamel broken, the repair is generally done in one North Hollywood dentist visit. An extensive broken or chip tooth might need a more costly and lengthy procedure. Discussed below are some methods that your dentist may use to fix a chip tooth. To fix chipped tooth, apply these methods as you contemplate how to repair your chip tooth or broken tooth.
Bonding or Dental Filling
Your dentist may recommend filling to be among the chip tooth treatment options if you have broken off a small piece of your tooth enamel. The dentist might suggest a bonding procedure for chipped front tooth repair or where the damage can be visible as you smile. Bonding is done using a tooth-colored compound resin.
It is a simple process that does not generally require numbing your chip tooth. During tooth bonding, your dentist will first etch the tooth surface using a gel or liquid to toughen it and ensure that the bonding material sticks.
The next step will be, your Victory Plaza Dental Group dentist will use an adhesive substance to your tooth using tooth-like resin. After modeling the bonding to appear like the original tooth, your dentist applies ultraviolet light to ensure the material hardens.
How Much Does Bonding Cost?
Teeth bonding is among the chip tooth treatment options. Its cost varies depending on the extent of the treatment, your location, and the dentist’s expertise.
Generally, be expecting to pay between $300 and $600 per tooth. Additionally, you will have to replace your bonding every five to 10 years.
Before planning an appointment to fix a chipped tooth, talk to your dental insurance firm. Some insurer providers regard dental bonding as a cosmetic process; hence, they do not cover the procedure cost.
Dental Crown or Cap
With a large piece of your tooth broken off or chip tooth, your dentist might file away or grind part of your remaining portion if you have extensive tooth decay. They will then cover it using a tooth-shaped cap or crown.
Typically crown improves your tooth appearance and also protects it. Permanent crowns are porcelain-fused to metal, all-ceramic, all-metal, and all resin.
Each of these types has its different paybacks—the strongest of them all being the all-metal crown. Resin crowns and porcelain are usually made to appear nearly a duplicate of your natural tooth.
Where the whole upper part of your tooth has fractured, but its root is still undamaged, an endodontist (a root canals specialized dentist) or your dentist might carry out a root canal therapy procedure. During this procedure, they will place a post or a pin in your canal.
They will then build up an adequate structure on which they can make a crown. Following this, your dentist will cement the cap over the post or pin-retained restoration. Having crowns usually takes two dental visits. On your first visit, the dentist can take X-rays to check your tooth roots and the surrounding bone. Within less than a month later, your temporary crown is taken off, and check whether the permanent crowns fit before cementing them permanently in place.
Cost of Dental Crowns
The broken teeth repair cost in North Hollywood vary based on your resident country and the crown type you choose (for instance, porcelain crowns are usually expensive compared to gold crowns). Generally, crowns may cost around $800 and $1700, although the price is more per crown. Most insurance providers usually cover some part of the crown’s cost. To be sure about this, enquire from your dental insurance firm.
Dental Veneers
If you have a chipped front tooth repair or broken tooth, a dental veneer may make it appear healthy and whole again. Dental veneers are thin shells of resin composite material or tooth-colored porcelain covering your entire front part of the tooth. The thick section replaces the chipped part of your tooth.
As the dentists prepare your tooth, they will eliminate about 0.3 to 1.2 millimeters of your tooth enamel. After that, your dentist can take an impression of your tooth and send it to a dental lab, where it will help make the veneer.
Once the veneers are ready, typically not more than two weeks later, the patient needs to visit the dentist for the veneer’s placement. During this process, the dentist will first cut your tooth surface using a liquid and thus roughening it.
Following that will be applying a specific cement to your veneer and then placing them on your prepared tooth. After the veneers are in position, the dentist will apply a distinctive light to activate the cement chemicals to harden it quickly. Your dentist will as well help you on how to fix a chipped veneer tooth.
Cost of Veneer
Generally, at Victory Plaza Dental Group, veneers range between $1,000 and $2,000 per tooth, based on your residential area and the particular procedure involved. Veneers are usually performed for cosmetic aims, and hence it is not covered by the insurance providers. Be sure to check with your insurance company.
Root Canal Therapy
For people with significant tooth breaks or chip tooth exposing the pulp, bacteria from their mouth may build-up and infect their pulp. This is the center tissue of your tooth enclosing blood vessels and nerves.
If you experience chipped tooth pain, sensitivity to heat, or your tooth changes color; your pulp might probably be diseased or damaged. The pulp tissue might die, and when it is not eliminated, it can infect your tooth and result in tooth extraction. Steps involved in root canal therapy include the following.
- Removal of the dead pulp
- Root canal cleaning
- Sealing of the pulp
A root canal is among the chip tooth treatment options. The procedure is carried out by specialists known as endodontists or general dentists. Most root canal treatments by North Hollywood dentist are not that painful compared to getting your cavity filled. Usually, to protect the weakened tooth, your dentist will cover the remaining part using a crown.
Cost of Root Canal Therapy
Root canal therapy cost varies based on the tooth affected and how extensive your condition is. Most dental insurance plans will partially cover endodontic treatment.
An approximate estimate in general dentistry can cost between $500 and $1,000 for incisors and $800 and $1,500 for a molar. The cost is for a root canal procedure itself, excluding a dental repair after the procedure. However, the charges are even higher when treated by an endodontist; it can be even higher by 50%.
Risk Factors Related to Chip Tooth
A weakened tooth is likely to chip compared to solid teeth. Some of the things that weaken a strong tooth include the following.
- Taking many acidic foods, like coffee, fruit juices, and spicy foods.
- Teeth grinding
- Heartburn or acid reflux, two digestive disorders that get stomach acid up
- Sugar yields bacteria
- Cavities and tooth decay as well as large fillings
- Excessive use of alcohol and eating disorders
Conclusion
There are possible successful treatment options that will help you fix chipped tooth by treating tiny chip in tooth or broken teeth. The healing period of a chip tooth is usually short after the completion of a dental procedure.
Any chipped tooth dentist near me? Contact our North Hollywood dentist for a consultation and more information about broken teeth repair cost in North Hollywood.
At Victory Plaza Dental Group, we are ready to help you fix your tiny chip in tooth, chipped tooth pain, and tooth extraction.