Repairing A Broken Tooth With The Tooth Itself
When a section of your tooth breaks away, it's helpful to save it if possible. As far as a dentist is concerned, the best material to restore a broken tooth is often the tooth itself. Remember that such a breakage can be painful, and this pain can continue until you receive treatment. Emergency dentistry is needed when the breakage causes pain.
Reasons For Breakage
There are plenty of reasons why a tooth can break. An accident may have resulted in physical trauma to the tooth. The tooth could already be weak due to untreated decay, and so biting into a seemingly innocent piece of food may have caused enough friction to break the weakened tooth. The strength of the tooth could just have exceeded its capacity if you use your teeth to open a bottle or packet. Regardless of the reason, extract the broken piece of tooth from your mouth if you can before arranging an emergency dental appointment.
Easy To Swallow
In the confusion of an accident, or even just the surprise of feeling your tooth break, it's easy to swallow any tooth fragments. If this happens, don't worry, since a dentist can still repair your broken tooth. But if you're able to, remove the tooth fragment from your mouth and set it aside. Remember that the fragment has no living tissue, and so doesn't need any special care at this point. Just seal it inside a small container (with a lid) and take it to your emergency appointment.
Reattaching The Fragment
The dentist will inspect the damage, and if reconnection is possible, they'll cement the missing fragment back onto the tooth. This involves the same dental cement used to attach other dental restorations, and for all intents and purposes, will be permanent. The structural strength of the tooth should be restored, but short-term caution with your diet may be recommended, such as temporarily avoiding foods that are too hard or sticky. Reattaching the missing fragment is the ideal solution in these cases, but what about if the fragment is truly missing (as in swallowed)?
Rebuilding The Tooth
Don't be worried if you swallow a tooth fragment. It won't do you any harm, but it's gone forever. Your chipped tooth is still vulnerable to further damage, so you'll need to have it restored. When the missing section can't be reattached, a dentist will instead rebuild it using a tooth-coloured resin. This is the same strong material used to fill cavities. Your dentist will apply the resin to the affected area, and will then manually sculpt it before using a special light to cure the resin. Again, short-term caution with your diet can be recommended.
If it's possible, bring your missing tooth fragment or fragments to an emergency dentistry for reattachment. When it's not possible, a dentist can rebuild the missing part of the tooth without trouble.