If you’ve ever experienced it, you know it’s a terrible feeling to break part of your tooth. Tooth enamel is one of your body’s most durable structures, but it has limits. If you have a broken tooth or have chipped a tooth, don’t panic.
Our dental care team in Philadelphia can do many things to repair it. Otherwise, your tooth could be damaged further if not repaired in time. In addition to fixing chipped teeth, Dr. Conover and Dr. Doray provide solutions for other dental concerns you may have.
Solutions for Chipped Teeth
We offer a wide variety of solutions to repair a chipped tooth. The first step is to schedule a consultation with Dr. Conover. He will recommend the best option for your needs. If the damage is minor and not severe, he can likely repair it in a single visit.
If the chipped tooth is severe and broken, treatment will likely be costly and require more than one visit. Solutions for chipped teeth or a cracked tooth include:
Dr. Conover offers white fillings for virtually undetectable restoration. If you have only chipped off a small amount of tooth enamel, this will likely be the treatment used to repair the damage. This is a routine procedure that can be completed in a single office visit.
If the damage is to the front teeth or seen when you smile, we will likely use tooth bonding to repair the damage. The bonding treatment uses a tooth-colored resin material that provides a cost-effective, natural-looking restoration in a single visit.
A dental crown consists of fine layers of ceramic material that wrap around the tooth to improve strength and protect the tooth from further damage. This treatment is used when a large portion of the tooth has chipped off.
Not only do porcelain crowns add strength and protection, but it will also look identical to the natural tooth. Using a crown to repair a chipped or cracked tooth will require at least two visits to our Philadelphia dentist office.
If one of your front teeth is chipped, we may recommend a tooth veneer to make it look whole and natural again. A dental veneer is a thin, ceramic shell applied to the front and sides of a tooth to restore strength and beauty.
Our office uses a porcelain material to make the veneer look just like your original tooth. This process will require about two visits to our dentist office.
Root canal
Sometimes the chipped or cracked tooth will expose the inner portion of the tooth, called the pulp which contains blood vessels and nerves. The crack will allow bacteria from your mouth to enter and infect the pulp. Often if the pulp is infected and inflamed the tooth will hurt, change color, and be extremely sensitive. At other times, a patient may have an infection detected in an x-ray, but experience no obvious symptoms.
If this is the case, a root canal may be necessary to repair and save the tooth. After the tooth is sealed, a ceramic crown is placed over the tooth to protect it.
Before & After Photos
Morgan: Before & After Chipped Tooth
Ava: Before & After Broken Teeth
Mitchell: Before & After Broken Tooth