No one wants to experience serious tooth pain because when your tooth hurts, it makes everything else hurt as well. Tooth pain can cause headaches, jaw pain, and ear pain. Here is some information about cracked teeth and how dentists fix cracked teeth.

Cracked Teeth

When you chip a tooth, you usually break off a minuscule piece of your tooth enamel, which is the surface of your tooth. Tooth enamel chipping is usually not painful unless the chip is very large. Meanwhile, a cracked tooth may be more serious. When you crack a tooth, the crack may be serious enough to reach your tooth pulp. Your tooth pulp is at the center of your tooth and is soft and full of blood vessels and nerves. Cracked teeth can become serious. A cracked tooth allows bacteria to enter it, which can cause tooth decay. A cracked tooth is more likely to crack further unless it is repaired.

How Do Teeth Crack?

Teeth can crack due to normal wear and tear. The older you are, the less tooth enamel you have as you age, and the less enamel you have, the more likely you are to chip or crack teeth. Teeth can also crack because of trauma to the face from an accident or an injury. If you clench or grind your teeth, your teeth can crack due to the extreme pressure bruxism (clenching or grinding) causes. If you have cavities or gum disease in a particular tooth, your tooth can crack as well. Both tooth decay and gum disease make your teeth weaker and more prone to cracking.

Fixing Cracked Teeth

People with a small crack on a tooth can have it fixed with bonding. Bonding is great for small cracks in your teeth, and it is cost-effective. Bonding takes very little time and is painless as well. If you have a larger crack on a tooth, you may need a crown. Crowns are usually porcelain over a metal cap and will help keep your tooth strong. If you have several cracked teeth, you may want to speak to our dentists about veneers so you can fix all of those cracks at once.