Tooth Decay or cavities are common in people of all ages. It is a health problem that comes into seen due to poor oral hygiene. This health issue is common in adults, teenagers, and children. Some common factors like sipping sugary drinks, frequent snacking, and bacteria in your mouth. There are some complications with cavities that the patient suffers, such as positioning shifts after tooth loss, chewing problems, broken or damaged teeth infection, pus, swelling or swelling, tooth abscess, and pain. The tooth cavity leads to infection and pain. Learn more about it in the below lines.
What to do if you have a tooth cavity?
First of all, one should follow healthy oral habits. With the help of fluoride treatment, one can handle cavities. If your cavity is at the initial stage, this treatment can help restore it. Fluoride restores the enamel and reverses a cavity in the early stages. Other treatments or methods are filing, crowns, tooth extraction, and root canal.
It is impossible to fix a cavity at home because it can damage teeth. A dentist can help you in repairing the cavities. You should choose the products that can prevent you from decay and plaque. Your wrong action or treatment can break or damage your teeth.
There are many reasons for tooth cavities, and the good news is that they are repairable in most scenarios. In some cases, you may be experiencing the pain, while the cavity may not cause pain in other scenarios. Let us start with the different types of cavities and tooth damages.
Different types of tooth damage
If you are suffering from a cavity, it can break your tooth. The strongest tissue in our body is the tooth enamel. So, it can be one of the reasons that your tooth will break, get chipped, or cracked. Due to the cavity, you cannot be able to chew hard things from that side. Biting any hard thing unexpectedly can hurt teeth. Using teeth for bottle opening or thread cutting can break a tooth. Eating acidic food and eroding the enamel and old fillings with no support can be trouble.
The depth of the treatment will depend upon the severity of the injury. A small chip is easily treated, while a serious broken tooth requires extraction. You should never ignore teeth problems even with no pain because a small chip may lead to cracked teeth. Therefore, it is always advisable to visit your dentist.
Chipped teeth
It is very common nowadays. You will have a small chip in the enamel, or some part of the tooth will be missing. You will not experience it if only tooth enamel is chipped. However, if the nerve inside the tooth is exposed, it is very painful. You must fix chipped teeth because of the following reasons:
- It is painful
- The sharp surface of the tooth may cut your mouth tissues
- Dentin layer may be exposed, and will might decay
- It is not good to see
What to do with a tooth due to a cavity?
If you have the fragment, store it immediately in milk and visit the dentist. A dentist may attach it back using dental adhesive. However, without a fragment, it might be tricky but not complicated. Other methods include:
For smallercavities, clinical treatment is not necessary. Polishing the tooth to smooth the sharp surface is enough in most cases. It prevents your mouth from cutting. Repairing the tooth back is required in case of larger chips. A filling process called dental bonding is undertaken for this purpose.
If no decay requires removing, an anesthetic is not required. The tooth’s surface is roughened with the use of a gel, and adhesive is added. The bonding material is applied to give it the desired shape and finally hardened using UV light.
The front tooth cavity should be repaired for aesthetic reasons, but a chipped molar can be left as it is if there is no pain. However, you should check how much inner tooth is exposed. The decaying of dentin is faster than enamel. In this case, you will need complex treatment.
Cracked teeth
The levels of teeth cracking or fracture are as follows:
- Craze lines – Chipped teeth only affect outer enamel. No pain is there. A bit of polishing is required, and the surface is smooth.
- Cracked tooth – If you keep chewing things, the crack will spread more. Timely treatment is required to save your cracked teeth.
- Split tooth – This one is very painful because the tooth is cracked half vertically.
- Vertical root fracture begins in the root and spreads to the outer side—a significant cause of inflammation and infection.
Early spotting may even save your tooth. However, root canal treatment is required in case the tooth’s pulp gets damaged. It is a complex process where the tooth root is removed and replaced with a root filling. If you leave your tooth cracked, it will eventually split the tooth. Further negligence will require your whole tooth to be removed.
- A vertical root fracture is only treated through extraction.
- Many health tricks will save you from an injury or sudden tooth problem due to a cavity.
- A mouthguard should be used for playing dangerous sports like rugby or hockey.
- A hygienic routine should be followed.
- Rinsing after brush washes away the fluoride. It should be avoided.
- Sugar intake should be controlled.
- Sugar-free gum is best to neutralize the acidic damage.
Broken teeth due to cavity
More breaking of your tooth means nerves in the dental pulp are exposed. It is very painful. Internal bleeding may occur. No pain ever means any problem. In the worst scenario, nerves are badly damaged because of decay. Further negligence will cause an abscess.
Wisdom and back tooth are more exposed to decay-induced break. This is because they are hard to clean. Urgent restoration or extraction may be required for both teeth. You can go for tooth implant in case of damaged teeth.