Has this ever happened to you, that you crunch ice or some piece of candy that is too hard to chew, and you end up breaking a piece of tooth in your mouth? Certainly, a chipped tooth makes your beautiful smile unattractive and makes you uncomfortable in public. The enamel covering your teeth is the toughest tissue in your body, but still it has some limits. If you fall with a great force, or receive a blow on your mouth, or bite anything too hard, especially if your tooth is already weak, it may lead to a chip or broken tooth. The chipped tooth surface becomes sharp at times, giving an awful shape to your tooth and of course some pain while eating food. However, you need not panic in such situations; instead rush to your dentist for fixing them. Now before moving to the subject of how a chipped tooth can harm your oral health, you must first understand what the real factors are that can cause chipped teeth: You bite any hard substance accidently, like a candy or ice You had an accident or you fell from somewhere injuring your mouth badly You have played contact sports like boxing, judo, karate etc. without taking necessary precautions like a mouth guard You have the habit of grinding your teeth while you fall asleep A chipped tooth is commonly seen both in children and adults. There is no specific age at which you may have a chipped tooth. However, it is obvious that any tooth in your mouth which has lost its strength is already at high risk of chipping. Likewise, if you have any untreated cavities, huge fillings or if you have not replaced older fillings, such damaged teeth may chip or break even with a minor hit or fall.

What Problems Can a Chipped Tooth Cause To Your Oral Health? It has been observed that most of the time people do not consider a chipped tooth a serious problem and keep delaying their visit to the dentist unless the tooth hurts. This is the wrong attitude as an untreated chipped tooth may result in several oral health issues. Following are a few major problems that you can face with a chipped tooth: It can damage soft oral tissue: Whether it is a major tooth chip or minor, it has sharp edges that can hurt your oral tissues, such as your lips and tongue. If your tongue touches the chipped tooth, the rough and uneven edges can cause irritation and even bleeding while eating food. It can damage tooth pulp: Your tooth pulp can be severely damaged if the chip or crack is deep. Tooth pulp consists of all the tissues of the tooth like nerves, connective tissues, blood vessels or microscopic structures known as “tubules”. Tooth pulp can give you a lot of pain if damaged, and not treated on time. Consequently, it can cause severe infection. It can irritate your gums: The pressure of your chipped tooth while chewing or biting food causes irritation of gums and swelling, and this can be very intense if the nerves of the chipped tooth are exposed. It makes your teeth very sensitive: With chipped teeth, you can feel pain not only at rest (when your mouth is not working), but also when you are using your teeth for chewing and biting. You may experience high sensitivity when you consume cold or hot drinks and food. This means that the temperature changes affect the chipped teeth. The reason is that the chipped tooth exposes dentine beneath the enamel. It lowers your self-esteem: The most common problem from a chipped tooth is that your self-esteem is affected. When you shield your smile because of embarrassment, you lose your confidence and fail to enjoy a happy, lively life.

Further Complications Since chipped teeth form a rough surface of unnatural cracks or pits, it becomes difficult to keep them clean all day long. The wet and warm surroundings in your mouth develop the ideal breeding grounds for germs and bacteria and cause infections. Chipped teeth may cause: Teeth decay Bad breath problem Various gum diseases Loss of teeth if symptoms remain untreated Fever Glands around your jaw or neck may swell It depends on the level of damage how your dentist approaches the problem. He can go for various restorative procedures to treat the issue. If your dentist fails to save the chipped tooth, the only option left is to remove the tooth. Therefore, seeking immediate dental advice is essential. Long Beach Family Dentist welcomes you for any sort of dental emergency or regular dental examinations. Whether you want cavity fillings, dental implants, tooth extraction, root canal or any other service, we have the expert team members who can handle your dental problems with advanced equipment and at a reasonable cost.