Dr. Jyoti A Chaudhari

More than often, parents have to deal with children coming home with a broken front tooth / teeth. Dental problems (learn more to maintain dental health), injuries sustained during physical activities and games, munching on certain foodstuffs (nuts, certain candies) contribute in a big way to chipped front tooth. It is advisable for parents to consult a dentist at the earliest. Left unattended, the situation might result in infections or other dental complications (know more to maintain healthy teeth).

A broken front tooth is often the hardest to fix. The effectiveness of the treatment is largely governed by the nature and severity of the damage.

1. In case of a really small crack or a break, the problem can be fixed by simply filing the broken surface to smoothen it.

2. Dental bonding comes as a huge relief in situations where a small portion or corner of the front tooth chips off. The procedure is simple and hassle free. The surface of the broken tooth is fixed or bonded with a bonding material. The material is shaped well to give it a more natural appearance. The bonding material is finally hardened using UV light.

3. Dental crowning comes in handy when a large chunk of the front tooth cracks or breaks off. To understand the condition better, an X-ray of the affected tooth is carried out. If everything goes fine, the dentist proceeds to the next step. The tooth to be crowned is then filed down to ensure sufficient space to fit in the crown.

In some cases, the break results in enormous loss of the tooth. Under such circumstances, a filling material is used to assist the tooth in holding the crown. Next, an impression of the tooth (receiving the crown) as well as the opposing tooth is made using putty. Till the new crown is being manufactured, the dentist may fix a temporary crown (generally made of acrylic) to protect the tooth. In the next sitting, the dentist replaces the temporary crown with a permanent one. The crown used may be of stainless steel, all porcelain, all ceramic, metal, porcelain fused to metal or all resin.

In case of an extensive damage, Root canal is performed prior to the dental crowning. This goes a long way to ward off any possible dental infection or injury.