How to Treat a Chipped Tooth Safely

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How to treat a chipped tooth before seeing a dentist.

Maintaining your dental health requires both dedication and effort. You need to take important steps such as brushing and flossing every day, eating the right foods, visiting a dental office for a cleaning and checkup at least twice a year, and avoiding harmful activities such as smoking and other forms of tobacco.

No matter how meticulous you are with your oral health, however, accidents can result in physical damage to your teeth. Today, we’re going to look at a common dental emergency as we explain how to treat a chipped tooth.

First Steps You Should Take for a Chipped Tooth

Although you’ll want to visit a dentist as soon as you can, learning how to treat a chipped tooth right away will help you alleviate any discomfort or pain that you may be experiencing. Follow these simple tips if your tooth becomes chipped, broken, or fractured:

  • Experiencing Pain — Take an over-the-counter pain reliever, as needed, and rinse your mouth with salt water.
  • Sharp or Jagged Edge — Cover up the tooth with either wax paraffin or sugarless gum to avoid cutting your tongue, lips, or cheek.
  • Need to Eat — The best strategy is not to eat anything, but if you must, only eat soft foods and don’t bite down on the tooth.

Chipped Tooth Dental Services in St. Petersburg

The good news is that advances in dental technology have provided a few different ways to handle a chipped tooth. Once you arrive at your dental office, your dentist will go over the available options that will fit your specific needs. Let’s take a look at the different techniques that may be used:

Dental Filling or Bonding

If the chip in your tooth is relatively small, your dentist may only need to conduct a simple filling. However, in the event the damage has been done to one of your front teeth that others might notice, they’re more likely to use a technique called bonding. This involves using an adhesive material to bond your existing tooth with a composite resin.

Dental Cap or Crown

If your chipped tooth has decayed or a large piece missing, then you’ll probably need a dental cap or crown. With this procedure, the dentist will grind or file away part of the tooth and then apply either a cap or crown to improve its appearance. Permanent crowns are available in metal, porcelain/metal, resin, or ceramic. Your dentist will go over the differences and allow you to decide which you’d prefer.

Dental Veneers

If you have severe damage to a front tooth, you’re likely to need a dental veneer to improve its appearance. This is done with the application of either a porcelain or resin composite to cover the tooth. For this procedure, your dentist will remove a small amount of enamel, make an impression of the tooth, and then have the veneer constructed. Once that’s done, a special cement will be used to apply it permanently.

Root Canal Therapy

With very severe chips or breaks, the area of your tooth containing nerves and blood vessels (called the pulp) may be exposed. In these extreme cases, it’s important that you go to a dentist right away in order to prevent infection from bacteria. Most likely, you’ll need to have a root canal to fix the problem. Don’t worry – it’s not as scary as it sounds.

Contact St. Petersburg Dentist Dr. Ferullo to Treat a Chipped Tooth

Now that you know how to treat a chipped tooth, you can alleviate any pain or discomfort that you’re feeling until you can call the St. Petersburg dental office of Dr. Ferullo. Our staff will set you up with an appointment to ascertain which dental procedure would be best in order to rectify the problem. To learn more about these procedures or to inquire about our free teeth whitening offer, contact us by calling (727) 822-8101 to schedule an appointment today.

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