Any tooth crowns you have in your mouth can be cracked at any time. Just like your regular teeth, your dental crowns are made of durable material, but blunt force, a hard bite into something, or an accident can cause a tooth crown to become compromised. If this happens, you may not feel any pain right away since the crown may not be cracked entirely into your dentin or nerves of the tooth. However, this doesn't mean the situation is any less serious.
Cracked dental crowns cannot do their job, which is to protect the remaining parts of your teeth against future damage and decay. Even if you cannot see the cracks in a damaged dental crown, the damage is still there and bacteria can get in and cause a cavity or worse in a tooth that is already compromised. If you suspect you have cracked a crown or you have broken pieces of dental crown off, do the following things right away.
Call your dentist
The first thing you should do about cracked dental crowns is to call your dentist. Your dentist will fit you in for an emergency treatment depending on the severity of your situation and if the cracked tooth crowns involve other damage like loose or missing teeth. Your dentist will want to do an X-ray along with a visual examination of your teeth to see what to do next.
Find any parts of the crown
If you are missing parts of your tooth crowns, then find them if you can and keep them safe and away from exposure. While not always the case, your dentist may be able to reattach a piece of a dental crown if it's not severely damaged, which can save you money on your dental care costs and get you back to a healthy smile sooner.
Take care of your smile
A cracked dental crown should be taken seriously, so make sure to avoid strenuous behaviors and chewy or hard foods until you have fully healed. This means no sports, and in the future, wear a mouth guard when doing sports to protect your teeth. If you grind your teeth at night, now is a time to consider a mouth guard at night as well.
There are many ways your dentist can repair cracked tooth crowns. From fusing the crowns with new material to replacing older crowns entirely, your smile can be repaired with the help of your dentist.
Contact your dentist if you have questions about your tooth crowns.
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