Teeth cracking causes major concern and for good reason – teeth don’t grow back. While trying to prevent a cracked tooth is your best bet, sometimes prevention doesn’t work and you still end up with cracked teeth. Understanding how teeth crack can help you try to prevent them better. In the event cracked teeth occur, you can also understand both how they did and what your next steps are.

What Causes a Cracked Tooth?

There are a number of reasons why teeth crack. These include:

• Teeth grinding and clenching
• An overly large filling that strains and breaks your tooth
• Chewing or biting something hard – like popcorn kernels
• Blunt force trauma, like getting hit in a contact sport
• Gum disease, which can lead to root fractures
• Age, because teeth weaken as we get older
• Abrupt changes in mouth temperature, like drinking something really hot and then something really cold

Being conscious of the reasons behind a cracked tooth can help you be more mindful in your goal to prevent them or help you understand how you got cracked teeth.

How Can You Tell If Your Tooth Is Cracked?

If you’re worried about if you have a cracked tooth, depending on the type of crack, you’ll probably be able to tell. Some signs that you have a cracked tooth or cracked teeth are:

• Pain when chewing/biting, or that comes and goes
• You can see it/feel it
• Abnormal sensitivity
• Gum swelling/inflammation

A cracked tooth can also lead to further complications, like fever and bad breath, and even dental infection. Teeth can become loose, and your gums can start bleeding.

Tooth cracks don’t show up on dental x-rays, so your dentist will have to use other methods to find if you have a crack. They may use a dental dye, which would highlight the crack. They can use other standard dental exam methods as well, such as probing your gums, using a dental magnifying glass, having you bite down on something, and ask you questions.

What Kinds Of Cracks Are There?

There are several different ways teeth can crack, some serious, some less so. While some cracks are less serious than others, it’s important to see a dental professional for any type of cracked teeth. 

The less serious kind of cracked teeth is known as craze lines. These are simple cracks on your tooth’s enamel, and typically don’t pose significant problems. Your dentist can easily round and polish them away.

The other kinds of cracked teeth, however, are more serious. They are: a cracked tooth, a cracked cusp, split teeth, and a root fracture.

• A cracked tooth is when you have a crack extending from the top of the tooth to the root, sometimes into the root itself.
• A cracked cusp is when the cusp of the top of your tooth where you bite cracks.
• A split tooth is as it sounds – a tooth split in two. Split teeth often result from untreated cracked teeth, and typically need extraction for at least part of the tooth, however, it can be possible to save both parts of it.
• A root fracture, which is when the crack starts below the gum line and goes up. These usually need to be extracted and treated with a root canal and a crown.

How Do You Fix Cracked Teeth?

If you have a cracked tooth, you don’t need to worry – it can be fixed. Cracked teeth can be fixed with several different methods, depending on the kind of crack and the severity of it.

Craze lines don’t typically require treatment, but it is still best to see a dental professional about them, as a preventative measure.

Other kinds of cracked teeth can be fixed by:

• Bonding – where plastic resin fills in the cracks
• Contouring, which is where rough edges are polished away
• Veneers, which fit over the surface of a tooth
• Crowns, which fit over teeth and look like a natural tooth
• Root Canals – where infection is cleared out of the root. This typically pairs with getting a crown.
• Extraction – in extreme cases, the entire tooth needs to be removed. 

How Do You Prevent Cracked Teeth?

Teeth don’t heal like skin does. It is best to do all in your power to avoid cracking your teeth, especially since a serious cracked tooth could result in you losing that tooth – and teeth don’t grow back. You can prevent teeth from cracking by wearing a mouthguard when playing sports, especially contact sports, and by avoiding biting anything hard, like the pit of a fruit, or using your teeth to open things. If you struggle with clenching or grinding your teeth, talk to a dental professional about options to protect your teeth, such as a retainer. Good dental hygiene can also prevent cracked teeth because healthy teeth are stronger, and ergo, less likely to crack.

Questions About Cracked Teeth?

Please contact David G. Johnson DDS for any questions or concerns about cracked teeth or any other dental health issues. You can schedule an appointment today!

Every day for our entire lives we brush our teeth, or should be anyways. But do we ever wonder where the toothbrush and toothpaste came from? I bet most of us don’t even think about that because we all take the little things for granted. Here is a little history about the toothbrush and toothpaste.  

The First Toothbrush and Toothpaste  

Between the year 3500-3000 B.C. historians say the ancient Babylonians and Egyptians created the first toothbrushes using frayed twigs as bristles and bones for the handles. They found these “toothbrushes” buried with them in their tombs. They also used the toothpaste around 5000 B.C. years before the toothbrush. It was made using grounded ox hooves, ashes, burnt egg shells and pumice. Not very hygienic, am I right? You definitely don’t want to use that mix now.  

History of the Toothbrush 

People didn’t do much to advance the toothbrush until it was reinvented in the year 1498 in China. The brush was from course hairs taken from the back of a hog’s neck and attached to bone or bamboo for the handles. In 1780, William Addis was from England and designed the toothbrush from cattle bone and the brush portion was made from a pig’s hair as well. Before he invented his design, he was arrested for causing a riot. While in prison he decided that using a rag with soot and salt on the teeth was ineffective and could be improved. After his release, he became tremendously wealthy manufacturing toothbrushes with his company Wisdom Toothbrushes. By 1840 toothbrushes were being mass produced in Britian, France, Germany and Japan. Addis died in 1808 and passed on his company to his eldest son and it remained in his family until 1996. Photographs, documents and collected brushes are now displayed in a museum.  

The Greeks and Romans used toothpicks to clean their teeth and in places like India and Africa they used chew sticks. A chew stick was a twig with frayed ends used to brush the teeth and the other end was used as a toothpick. The toothbrush as we know it today wasn’t invented until 1938 by E. I. du Pont de Nemours and is now commonly known as the American company DuPont. The DuPont company is the world’s fourth largest chemical company. He made the toothbrush from nylon and by the 1950’s softer nylon was created. 10 years later the electric toothbrush was invented and progressed over the next decades to what we now use. 

History of the Toothpaste 

The Greeks and Romans took the Egyptians ingredients and began experimenting. They used crushed bones, oyster shells and charcoal to help improve their teeth. China and India used the same ingredients but added more flavor like herbal mints and salts. In the 1700’s toast was invented and some used stale toast, ground it up until it was a fine power and used it to help scrub teeth.  

In 1824, a dentist named Peabody was the first person to add soap to toothpaste. In the following years a man named John Harris added chalk into the ingredient. Colgate began producing their toothpaste on a wider scale by 1873. Their toothpaste was placed in a jar and multiple people in a household would dip their toothbrushes into the jar. Until Dr. Washington Sheffield thought it was unsanitary; he got the inspiration from painters to place the toothpaste in a collapsible tube. By 1914, fluoride was discovered but not particularly used in all toothpaste worldwide. After World War II, synthetic detergents replaced soap and then by 1960 fluoride became standard in toothpaste.  

Toothpaste today contains fluoride, coloring, flavoring, sweetener, and ingredients that make the toothpaste smooth, foam, and stay moist. Over the last centuries the toothpaste has advanced to a healthier and more hygienic paste that helps with whitening and preventing cavities. Aren’t you glad we don’t use crushed bones in toothpaste anymore? I know I am.