A chipped tooth can be painful and can also cause issues with eating foods that you will want to address as soon as possible. Therefore, if you’ve chipped your tooth, it’s important to see your dentist as soon as you can. But you might be wondering how to care for a chipped tooth until your dental visit, if you can’t get in right away. Here are a few tips that will help you protect your damaged tooth and reduce pain until you can see your dentist.
How to Care for a Chipped Tooth Until Your Dental Visit
First, once you’ve noticed your tooth is chipped, it’s important to make an appointment with your dentist as soon as you can. There are many ways your dentist can fix a chipped tooth, but it’s important to protect your teeth as well as you can until then. Until you can see your dentist, there are a few things you can do that will reduce pain and help prevent additional damage.
First, assessing how severe the chip is and how it happened will help. This will help you protect your tooth, and it can give your dentist more information to help them fix it.
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How Tooth Chips Happen
Knowing how your tooth was chipped will help you care for your tooth until you can see your dentist, and it will help you prevent another chip from happening. There are a few different ways your tooth might have been chipped. Sometimes, a combination of the following might occur:
- Impact: If you had an accident or suffered an injury to the face, you might have chipped your tooth. Or, if you were biting a hard object or using your teeth as a tool for something like opening a difficult package, this might have also caused a tooth chip.
- Tooth decay: Bacteria around your teeth produce acids that slowly eat away at the tough structures of your tooth and weaken them, which can make it easier for the tooth to chip.
- Teeth grinding: Stress can cause nighttime or even daytime teeth grinding, which puts a lot of pressure on your teeth. This condition, also known as bruxism, can hurt your teeth, and cause them to chip as well.
- Nutritional deficiencies: If you’re not getting enough vitamins and minerals, particularly vitamin D and calcium, it can slowly weaken your teeth, making it more likely that they will chip.
- Fillings: Teeth that have suffered from cavities and have been filled have lost some of their sturdiness, and they might chip sooner than other teeth. Or, if a filling was not properly put in place, it can put pressure on the tooth and cause cracks or chips.
What Type of Chip?
First, it’s helpful to know how severe the chip in your tooth is. Some chips are minor, and will be easy to deal with until you can see your dentist. If the chip in your tooth is more severe, you might have to take a few more measures to protect your tooth.
- Small chip: If you noticed a small bit of your tooth come loose, but you don’t feel much pain or discomfort, it’s probably a small chip.
- Large chip: If you noticed a large bit of your tooth come loose, and you noticed pain and discomfort quickly, it might be a large chip.
- Chip and crack: If a large bit of your tooth came loose, and you see a visible crack, the damage is more extensive.
- Split tooth: If your tooth chipped and also severely cracked down to the gums, you’ll probably feel severe pain, and may need emergency dental services.
Call Your Dentist
As soon as you notice that your tooth has chipped, call your dentist and make an appointment. Tell your dentist how the chip occurred, the extent of the damage, and which tooth has chipped. If you’re experiencing a lot of pain and the damage is severe, like the previously mentioned large chip, chip and crack, or split tooth, ask about emergency dental services.
If you are in need of emergency dental services in the Las Vegas area, contact us today at 702-388-8888.
Don’t Cover Your Chipped Tooth
Once you’ve made an appointment with your dentist, you may think it’s a good idea to cover your chipped tooth with over-the-counter dental resin. Your tooth might have sharp edges that can damage your tongue or gums, and covering this could reduce discomfort. However, DIY approaches to dental care can often cause further complications. Make sure to schedule an appointment with your dentist as soon as possible to avoid further issues rather than attempting temporary solutions on your own.
Be Gentle With Your Tooth
Instead of covering your tooth, just try to be extra gentle with it until your appointment. Avoid activities that might damage your tooth further, such as hard foods or high-impact sports. If you can, try to chew on the other side of your mouth.
If nighttime teeth-grinding is a problem, look for a mouthguard from a supermarket or pharmacy. These will mold to the shape of your teeth, and provide some extra cushion, so the grinding won’t cause more damage.
Brush and Floss Carefully
Since a chipped tooth is not completely protected by enamel, it will be more vulnerable to attack from bacteria, which can cause tooth decay, cavities, or tooth infections. So, it’s important to keep brushing and flossing your teeth, even while the tooth is chipped. Depending on the severity of the chip, your nerves might be exposed, and this might cause pain. Brush and floss carefully, and avoid the damaged tooth if the pain is severe. Rinse with mouthwash if you can.
See Your Dentist
Your dentist can repair a chipped tooth in a variety of ways, including a crown, permanent dental resin, or, if the damage is severe, dental implants. With the chip repaired, your tooth will be protected from bacteria, and your pain and discomfort will go away.
See your dentist as soon as you can to get your tooth chip repaired. If you’re in the Las Vegas area, we have many dental offices available to help. Call or make an appointment online at an office near you.
