What to do if you Broke Your Front Tooth

While teeth are known to be very strong, they are susceptible to chipping, cracking or even breaking. Accidents do happen especially when one engages in vigorous sporting activities like rugby or basketball. Other ways one can fracture or break their front tooth include biting down hard on something, falling and having cavities that lead to weak teeth.

In case you break your front tooth, you need to know what to do and how your broken tooth will be fixed.

What to do if you have a Broken Front Tooth

Step One – Stop the bleeding
If you have any bleeding it is important to stop the bleeding first so as to prevent staining your clothes as well as prevent losing blood in the process. You can get to stop the bleeding by swirling cold water in the mouth and spitting it out and then apply pressure with a towel.

Step Two –Gargle warm salt water

Gargling warm salt water will help to prevent infection since the affected area is open. Bacteria and other disease causing agents may find their way into the blood stream if one does not gargle warm salt water.

Step Three – Take a pain killer
It is important to consume anti inflammatory medication such as Advil or Ibuprofen as they will help to numb the pain. You can visit your local pharmacy as you head out to purchase the pain killers.

Step Four – Visit your dentist

It is important to visit your dentist two to three hours after the accident has happened. You will not only be given a anesthetic to eliminate the pain, but your dentist will get to repair the fractured or broken tooth.

What if you have a Completely Fractured Front Tooth

One day you are minding your own business and you bite into a piece of bread and SNAP!  Out comes your whole front tooth and you have a tooth broke off at gumline.  What are you going to do with a completely fractured front tooth?

First off, don’t freak out.  Dentists are trained to deal with this issue as we see this all the time.  We will know what to do and how to fix your front tooth.

Chances are high that your tooth had a root canal.  If so you will not have any pain.  The nerve has been removed and you will be fine to get to the dentist in the next 24-48 hours.  If you do experience pain then you probably didn’t have a root canal and should call an emergency dentist right away.

You may even have a broken crown tooth.  If the tooth previously had a crown then there’s a good chance that it cannot be repaired, but we won’t know until we see the tooth.  Sometimes the broken crown tooth can just be re-glued.

What are your Broken Front Tooth Options?

Bonding

If at least 50% of your tooth remains then you will probably be a candidate for dental bonding.  Bonding is tooth colored filling material that can rebuild the missing part of your tooth.

A Dental Crown

If 25-50% of your tooth remains then you will surely need a dental crown and possibly a root canal depending on the damage.  A crown will rebuild your entire tooth to the ideal size, shape and anatomy and glues over your existing tooth.  A crown can last 20-30 years.

Dental Implant

If you have very little tooth left as in the picture above then there is really no tooth structure to hold any dental restoration on.  If we put a crown on a tooth like this then the biting force will just knock it off.  So ultimately the tooth would need to be extracted and a dental implant placed in the socket.  Luckily we can perform both these procedures at the same time.

These will not only restore your broken front tooth but it will improve your confidence when smiling, laughing and chewing.

If you broke your front tooth or have been suffering with a broken front tooth you can call us immediately at 301-424-2030.