Dr. Katelyn Fenlon is a general dentist at Princess Center Dentistry in Scottsdale Arizona and today she is answering the question, how do dentists fix a chipped tooth?
There are three ways dentists can repair chipped teeth.
Method #1
Sometimes a chip is so small that we can just smooth it away. Let’s say you have a tiny little chip on the tip of your front tooth. If it’s really really small, sometimes you can just smooth it so that it’s aligned with the rest of your tooth.
Method #2
Sometimes though, doing that will make that tooth appear shorter than its neighbor. And when we look at our teeth and our smile, what we want to see is symmetry. So you don’t want one tooth that’s way shorter than the other. In that situation we can bond filling material to the tooth to fix the chip.
Method #3
If a tooth is chipped severely, if a big chunk of it is broken off, or if it’s a back tooth, if a cusp is broken on a tooth, a crown would be the best treatment option.
So to fix a chipped tooth, it really depends on the location and the severity of the chip, and we will be able to help you figure out what’s best for you.
Got a question? Ask our dentist, Dr. Fenlon! Or leave it in a comment below.