Dealing With A Painful Tooth Chip? What To Know

If you have chipped a tooth but you aren't sure if it's damaged the inside of the tooth, you want to make an appointment with the dentist quickly so you don't have further problems. A dental chip can be a real problem if it's ignored, and these are struggles you don't want to deal with when you could have had the tooth repaired without complications.

Save the chipped tooth if you can locate the broken part. Keep the tooth in a glass of milk or water, and try to keep the mouth moist until you can get to a dentist. Here are a few reasons why you don't want to go without seeing a dental professional for emergency treatment.

Fatality from Infection

A tooth that is chipped and cracked can expose the root of the tooth and the gum tissue to bacteria and infection. If the infection isn't treated and gets severe, it becomes toxic in the blood stream and cause severe illness, organ failure, hospitalization, and even death. You don't want to spend days in the hospital from a decayed tooth that got infected and deal with the pain. Get the chip checked out to see if you need an antibiotic for the dentist to be able to work on the tooth, and to prevent infection.

Cause a Need to Extract

If you let the chip go without treatment and it doesn't heal properly, you could deal with the following:

• Shattered tooth that require complete replacement
• Split gum tissue that needs stitches
• Severe decay that causes a need for extraction or cavities in other teeth

These are just a few of the different complications you can expect if the chipped tooth isn't repaired urgently after the damage is done.

There are a few different things that can be done to fix the chip, depending on how bad the chip is and what condition the tooth is in. You may have to get a root canal performed and then a crown or bridge put over the area where the chip exposed the tooth to infection. The dentist office should be able to get you in quickly when you let them know that you have a tooth that is damaged, that you are in pain, and that you want to see if the tooth can be saved or restored. Don't wait and chance having something worse happen to you than a chipped tooth.