Dr. Mogell Dental Blog

Boca Raton Cosmetic Dentist

Broken Tooth?

Thursday, September 17, 2015

Patients break teeth in all sorts of ways - sometimes there is a really good story behind the broken tooth. Sometimes it is a fall, sometimes it is a sports injury and other times the tooth has been weakened because of decay or an old filling.

How we treat a broken tooth depends on which tooth is broken and how badly it is broken.

Front teeth are the ones that usually break because of accidents. A front tooth with a chip can be repaired with bonding or a dental veneer. Bonding is a less expensive repair but the bonding material can stain. For more serious breaks and if a great deal of tooth structure has broken away then a dental crown may be needed.

Back teeth are likely to break because of biting into something hard. Back teeth also break because their structure has been weakened by large fillings that weaken the structure of the tooth. Often these older fillings have broken down, allowing decay to form under the filling. When these teeth break there is often not enough tooth structure left to "fill" which means a dental crown must be placed.

In some cases, the tooth breaks in such a way that it cannot be saved. In these cases the tooth is removed and replaced using either a dental implant or a bridge. Dental implants have quickly become the restoration of choice for missing teeth because they act and feel just like a natural tooth. We also don't have to touch the adjacent teeth like we do when placing a dental bridge.

Find out more about your options for repairing broken teeth and replacing a missing tooth by contacting cosmetic and general dentist Kenneth A. Mogell, DMD in Boca Raton today at 561-394-9000.

Labels: cosmetic dentistry, dental veneers