Balsan-dong Dental Clinic: A Sharp Pain Only When Chewing May Not Be a Cavity — Cracked Tooth Syndrome

Hello, this is Balsan-dong Dental Clinic.

I am Lee Su-gyeong, a specialist in integrated dentistry.

If you feel a sharp pain when chewing

or react especially sensitively to cold foods,

there is something you should suspect at least once.

That is Cracked Tooth Syndrome

(Cracked Tooth Syndrome, CTS).

Even if a tiny crack has formed,

it often goes unnoticed without any symptoms,

which is why detection itself is often delayed.

Source: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7172112/

In a clinical study that analyzed 2,858 patients with cracked teeth,

the proportion who experienced pain was only 46%.

In other words, more than half of the patients

had cracks but did not feel any particular symptoms.

To put it another way,

there were many cases where people did not know

that a crack existed.

Today, at Balsan-dong Dental Clinic,

we will take a closer look at

cracked tooth syndrome.

Balsan-dong Dental Clinic Oral Information

1. Causes of cracks in teeth

Teeth may look hard from the outside,

but when repeated force accumulates,

fine cracks can gradually form.

The most common cause is

repeated chewing of hard foods.

When you frequently chew foods

that place strong impact on the teeth,

stress concentrates on specific areas,

and this becomes the starting point of a crack.

Teeth grinding during sleep (bruxism) and

the habit of clenching the jaw are also major causes.

Because excessive force is repeatedly applied

without the person even realizing it,

a crack may progress

even without obvious symptoms.

Natural teeth with large or old fillings

can also become more vulnerable to cracking

as they expand and contract slightly with temperature changes.

Balsan-dong Dental Clinic Oral Information

2. Why diagnosis is difficult and the main symptoms

The reason CTS is tricky is that

a crack line is rarely captured

on a standard X-ray.

This is an example of a tooth crack for easier understanding.

This is because if the direction of the crack is

parallel to the direction in which the X-rays pass,

it will not appear on the image.

The typical symptom is a sharp pain that appears

momentarily when chewing in a certain direction.

It does not continue,

and it is characterized by appearing only at the moment of chewing

and then disappearing,

so if you repeatedly react sensitively to

cold or sweet foods,

or if it is difficult to pinpoint the location of the pain,

you should keep the possibility of a crack in mind.

Balsan-dong Dental Clinic Oral Information

3. Treatment direction depending on the depth of the crack

The treatment method depends on how deep

and how widely the crack has progressed.

If it is an early stage limited

to the outermost layer, the enamel,

the symptoms are often almost absent

or very mild.

At this stage, monitoring the condition or

reinforcing it with resin

may be enough for proper management.

However, if it progresses to the dentin

and pain repeatedly occurs when chewing,

a crown that covers and encases the tooth

to prevent the crack from expanding

is generally recommended.

If the crack goes deeper

and affects the pulp (nerve),

root canal treatment is needed, and

if it extends vertically down to

the root,

it becomes difficult to preserve the tooth,

so extraction may be necessary.

Therefore, checking in advance through regular checkups

is the most practical way to keep your teeth for a long time.

Balsan-dong Dental Clinic Oral Information

4. In closing - final thoughts

Because tooth cracks have vague symptoms

and are difficult to diagnose,

if you extract a tooth because the pain seems mild,

the crack may deepen and the scope of treatment

may become wider.

In daily life, reduce habits such as chewing ice

or excessively chewing hard foods,

and if you have a teeth-grinding habit,

it is a good idea to consider wearing

a stabilization appliance (mouth guard).

If a sharp pain repeats every time you chew,

even if there is no cavity,

please visit a nearby clinic and check whether there is a crack.

This was Lee Su-gyeong from Balsan-dong Dental Clinic. Thank you.