The cracked tooth conundrum

28 Sep

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A cracked tooth can be very painful. However, it is hard to find but certain symptoms can point us towards the diagnosis. The main symptom is a SHARP pain on biting (not a constant dull ache). The pain is relieved when your mouth is opened again. The below case shows the management of such a case.

This patient presented complaining of pain on biting on her upper second premolar (second tooth from left in x-ray). The x-ray showed a small amount of decay under the filling in the same tooth. We removed the filling and decay (second picture). A small hairline crack could be seen at the base of the cavity. We explored the small crack and could see that it went the full width of the tooth (third picture), this crack is what was causing the patient pain.

The managament of these cracks varies depending on how deep the crack is. Sometimes as in this case (picture 4) a white filling which “pulls” the tooth together and closes the crack will resolve the symptoms. If the crack goes as deep as the nerve of the tooth a root canal and crown would be required. In a small amount of cases the crack can be so large that the tooth is unsavable and may have to be removed.

If you experience the above symptoms at any stage please give us a call.

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