What To Do After Breaking A Tooth

Breaking a tooth can be a scary experience. Not only does the experience often involve a great deal of pain and discomfort, but patients with broken teeth initially also worry that their appearance will be ruined by the damage. 

Fortunately, professional cosmetic dentists, like those at Sunshine Dentistry, offers many solutions to fix broken teeth and leave patients' teeth looking better than ever after treatment. Before you get to the dentist, you can do the following after breaking a tooth to deal with the situation:

Save any fragments

In general, cosmetic dentists use processes like dental bonding or placing veneers or a dental prosthesis to treat a chipped tooth. However, in some cases they can restore real tooth fragments that have broken off. 

It's therefore a good idea to save broken tooth fragments and to bring them in to the dentist so that he or she can look at them and use them to help reconstruct the damaged teeth. 

Look out for symptoms

Immediately after your tooth becomes broken, you should inspect your mouth and look out for cracks or fissures that might expand. Feel out rough sections of your teeth with your tongue and make note of any cracks so that you can point out damage to your dentist later on. 

When accidents happen that lead to broken teeth, the important thing to focus on is preventing infection. Inflammation or swelling around your gums or teeth could indicate an infection. You can prevent infection by disinfecting your mouth with antiseptic mouthwash or salt water. Note that disinfecting your mouth after breaking a tooth might be painful, but it's important to kill bacteria before it causes further complications.

It might be difficult to brush your teeth if you have a broken tooth because the bristles may aggravate any pain you're feeling. Use a toothbrush with soft bristles to minimize discomfort. 

Cover jagged edges

Jagged edges left after a tooth has broken are likely to cause discomfort in the days following your accident. They can stab into your gums and the sides of your teeth and cause you to develop painful sores in your mouth. You can deal with this problem by purchasing dental wax and using it to smooth over jagged edges. 

Alter your diet

Broken teeth will be weak and susceptible to further breakage when you're eating. Until you see your dentist and have your teeth repaired, you'll want to avoid eating hard, crunchy foods that could put stress on your already damaged teeth.