On this blog, we try to cover things that we see in our office on a regular basis. One thing that is quite common is cracked tooth syndrome. This is something we want to discuss, because identifying a cracked tooth and educating the patient is often left to the discretion of the dentist.

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What is cracked tooth syndrome?

When you think about a cracked tooth, what most people picture is a tooth that has a very clear and defined crack in the enamel. And while sometimes it does, most of the time these are hairline fractures that are almost invisible to the naked eye. These fractures typically propagate from the inside of the tooth, which is why they are not as apparent as one might expect.

What are the symptoms of a cracked tooth?

Given that you often cannot see a cracked tooth, it’s important to understand the symptoms you may experience. You’ll know something is wrong because you have pain or discomfort when you’re chewing. This is most common when chewing something hard or sticky and the pain is most severe when you release the bite. You’ll also experience extreme cold sensitivity.

Both symptoms will progress as the crack becomes worse. This often continues until the pain becomes a dull ache. It’s also important to note that in the early stages, you may experience no symptoms.

What causes cracked tooth syndrome?

There are several things that can cause cracked tooth syndrome, including:

• Clenching and grinding. Clenching and grinding can happen while you are asleep or awake. If your teeth are colliding with each other or placing undue force on the other teeth – you are more likely to experience cracked tooth syndrome.
• Chewing hard objects. This goes for food and non-food items and includes things like hard nuts, pork rinds, ice, etc. If you are eating something and think to yourself “I hope my teeth survive this,” stop immediately. There should not be much resistance when you chew.
• Missing teeth. If you are missing teeth, then the biting forces in your mouth are not distributed evenly. This is true even for teeth that do not show. So, while placing an implant for a back tooth may not seem necessary, failing to do so will impact the surrounding teeth.

1. How do you treat a cracked tooth?Treatment of a cracked tooth depends on the severity of the crack. Let’s discuss three possibilities.
   1. Your tooth is starting to crack but you are not experiencing pain or symptoms.In this scenario, we’ve likely identified a crack during a regular hygiene appointment. We may see a small fracture in the tooth but are not experiencing any pain. At this point, we’ll make clinical judgements on what to do next. One option would be to monitor this tooth for changes. However, if the patient has a history of cracked teeth, we will want to be more aggressive in our treatment.If the patient has had a cracked tooth in the past that required a root canal or extraction, it may be in their best interest to get a crown. We’ll also want to determine the root cause of cracked tooth syndrome.
   2. Your tooth is cracked, and you are experiencing chewing discomfort.In this scenario, the patient may have one or both symptoms described above. In addition, the crack has progressed far enough to encroach on the pulp of the tooth. We know this because there is discomfort. Treatment for this patient could involve crowning the tooth to prevent the crack from spreading.It’s important to note that even after crowning the tooth, sometimes the pain does not go away. While the tooth is protected, symptoms can persist. In that case, we may discuss doing a root canal. This can be done by placing a small hole in the top of the tooth.
   3. Your tooth is cracked, and you are experiencing pain and/or cold sensitivity.Doing the root canal first is an important conversation we have with patients. Oftentimes, when painful symptoms exist, we discover that the crack goes deeper than expected or further across the tooth. In this instance, we would recommend doing a root canal first.There are also times where we see that the crack is into the nerve or splitting the tooth in two. In this case, we’d recommend extracting the tooth and placing an implant.

A quality treatment experience

In our office, it’s our goal to help patients get to 100 with all their teeth. Treating cracked tooth syndrome appropriately is one way we do that. Maintaining regular hygiene appointments is also important.

In need of a dental crown?

Whether you are a new patient or existing patient experiencing symptoms of cracked tooth syndrome – you can schedule a dentist appointment online, or call us at 813-689-4226.