If the Cost of a Chipped Tooth Is High, Here’s What to Know When Considering a Molar Resin Filling

What does a chipped tooth refer to?

When a tooth chips, you would naturally feel alarmed.

But in reality, when a tooth starts to chip in a small way, most people often do not realize that a crack has formed in the tooth.

From tiny cases that are hard to see with the naked eye to those that feel like just a slight twinge when eating, there are cases where the pain is so mild that you think, "Was it painful?"

Every time patients come in, there are things they say casually.

"It’s nothing serious, right?"

Once a tooth develops a crack, it cannot be glued back together, and it does not heal or regenerate either.

So even a very tiny, subtle crack cannot really be called "nothing serious."

What symptoms appear if there is a tooth crack? When a tooth cracks, at first you may wonder whether it is actually painful.

That is because, in the case of a tooth crack, pain is usually felt only when the crack has already become large and severe enough that extraction may even be necessary.

But if something feels off, be sure to check the list below.

If you feel a sudden sharp pain when chewing, or if you feel sensitivity when eating food such as cold ice cream or hot hoddeok, or if it feels like food is getting caught on the outside of the tooth or stuck between the teeth, those are the first things to check.

If part of the tooth has broken off, you should visit the dentist right away.

Also, if part of the gum on the same side keeps swelling, you should suspect a chipped tooth.

In particular, compared with a fine crack in the front teeth, a fine crack in a molar is something that must be checked at the dentist early on, because it is a tooth used for chewing every day and even a small crack can rapidly become larger.

Why do teeth chip? You may ask, "I saw an article saying that even if a person burns to death, the teeth remain—so why do teeth break?"

There are various reasons a tooth can end up chipped.

Of course, if you keep eating hard foods, it is inevitable that a tooth can break.

A representative example is the ice in iced Americano, which many people drink in both summer and winter.

There are really many people who bite down on the ice.

Biting ice is not good.

Also, eating gejang, snow crab, or other hard foods can put strain on the teeth, so it is important not to force yourself to eat them.

This also happens a lot in people who habitually clench their teeth due to bruxism or temporomandibular joint disorders.

Even if bruxism or clenching seems like just a habit, over time it can strain the teeth and cause them to chip, so we recommend preventive use of a splint.

In general, if there is decay, the tooth is in a weakened state, so a crack can form. It can also happen from getting injured while exercising.

Lastly, one unavoidable factor is aging.

As you get older, your teeth naturally weaken, so please keep in mind that they can break more easily.

How do dentists detect a crack when it is not visible? You may be wondering how they can tell when even I cannot clearly see whether a crack is there or not.

There are three main methods.

The first is applying an oral staining agent to detect it.

When the staining agent is applied, the color gathers in the crack, making the crack distinguishable.

The second is Qray.

This method uses fluorescent light to find bacteria that respond to the light.

If there is a crack, there are usually many bacteria in the crack.

It is a method of finding the crack by looking at the distribution of bacteria.

The most accurate method is to take a CT scan and find it.

This can be considered the most accurate method. At Seoul Centum Dental Clinic, we use the CT method.

Wouldn’t it be okay to just fill it with resin? When patients come to the dentist, the thing they are most afraid of is often the cost of dental treatment.

That is why we often get asked, “Can’t we just do it with the relatively inexpensive resin?”

Of course, there are cases that can be treated with resin alone. That is possible when the crack is very small.

But there is, of course, a valid reason why materials are divided.

Treatment cost for a chipped tooth As mentioned, very minor cracks can be treated with resin.

If part of the tooth has fractured, the cost is around 15 to 50, depending on the size of the area and whether an inlay or a crown is used.

If the crack has become too large and has extended to the root of the tooth, or if the tooth has visibly split in half, that is a difficult situation to reverse.

In that case, treatment would involve root canal treatment and a crown, or, if recovery is not possible at all, extraction followed by an implant.

How can we prevent tooth chipping? If you ask whether the only way to deal with a chipped tooth is simply to be careful, then it is best to avoid hard foods as much as possible.

In particular, bruxism and clenching habits may be fine when you are still young, but if the strain accumulates over time, it naturally puts stress on the teeth.

It is better to wear a splint or mouthguard in advance.

The most important thing is that when you feel something is wrong with your tooth, visiting the dentist right away is the most ideal way to prevent a chipped tooth.

If you think of a chipped tooth as nothing more than a simple crack and brush it off, it can turn into a serious problem.

In fact, when a chipped tooth is in the early stage, it can be hard to notice and may not cause major pain, so you might ignore it and let it pass.

But when it hurts badly, the scale of treatment has already become larger, so if possible, I recommend visiting the dentist directly at the first sign of pain for an examination.

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