Help me! My tooth is cracked

Are you suffering from sharp pain when you bite down? Do you avoid certain types of food or chew only on one side of your mouth? Does eating cold and sweet food cause you pain and discomfort? If so, be careful, you might be having a cracked tooth.

There are many causes of cracked teeth, including:

• Chewing nuts, hard candy, ice or other hard objects

• A blow or accident to lower lip or chin

• Having the bad habit of clenching or grinding the teeth

• Losing a large portion of tooth bulk, as in cases of large fillings or wear

• Brittleness of teeth after removal of their pulp in root canal treatments

• Exposure of enamel (natural cover of tooth crown) to sudden extreme changes in mouth temperature, like drinking very hot tea after eating an ice cream

• Gum diseases which cause severe bone loss, thus teeth are more likely to undergo root fracture

But, how can you know that you have a cracked tooth?

Actually, you can’t tell for sure that you have a cracked tooth, as the signs and symptoms of cracked teeth are so variable, and can be misdiagnosed with myriad dental diseases. Furthermore, dental x-ray sometimes doesn’t show cracks in a tooth; because, in order to appear in x-ray film, crack must be parallel to x-ray beam before the beam penetrates it.

You can only help your dentist by observing where and for how long you suffer from pain after eating cold, hot, sour, sweet, hard or sticky foods.
A cracked tooth is painful because normal biting forces cause the crack to open; when you stop biting, these forces are released causing crack to close again with sharp painful sensation.

Though most cracks are tiny, they can irritate the pulp when they open. Tooth pulp is very rich in nerves and blood vessels, so any irritation of the pulp will cause the tooth to be sensitive to sudden changes in the mouth temperature. Furthermore, if the pulp is exposed or diseased due to a tooth crack, root canal treatment is a mandatory.

Treatment of cracked teeth depends mainly on the size, type and location of the crack.

1. Craze lines

These are microscopic cracks restricted to enamel only. Except for bad esthetic, they are asymptomatic and cause no pain at all. No treatment is required. If you don’t like the appearance, a porcelain veneer can solve your problem.

2. Fractured Cusp

Usually occurs in the crown of the tooth, and extends to cervical margin of the root. Despite, it doesn’t involve the pulp; it causes sharp pain with chewing or with cold foods. Your dentist will remove fractured cusp and restore the tooth with a crown. Note: a cusp is the pointed part of occlusal surface of posterior teeth.

3. Cracked tooth

According to the depth of the crack, we have 2 types of cracked teeth.

Treatable cracked tooth:

Crack is only in the crown of the tooth (tooth is not completely separated). In these cases, exposure of pulp is common; your dentist will have to make root canal treatment for the affected tooth, afterwards, tooth will be covered with a crown to support the fractured parts.

Non-treatable cracked tooth:

When crack extends to the root, extraction of tooth is required.

4. Split tooth

When a crack in the tooth progresses; it causes the tooth to split.

Segments of a split tooth can be easily separated from each others.

Unfortunately, split tooth can’t be saved intact, your dentist will have to remove one segment and restore the other (by root canal treatment or a crown). In most cases, the two parts of split tooth have to be extracted.

5.Vertical root fracture

Crack occurs in the root only. Because it is painless, it is rarely noticed unless area of surrounding bone or gingiva is infected.

Treatment varies from tooth extraction to surgical removal of cracked portion of the root (endodontic surgery).

Please also read 7 worst Dental Emergencies you need to know.