From time to time, life gets rough. Even the most careful and conscientious person can find themselves in a position where they have to deal with a broken or fractured tooth, whether due to a sports injury, a slip and fall, or a rambunctious youngster with a toy that gets swung far too close for comfort. If you’re looking for treatment for a broken tooth, it may seem like an obvious move to make your local dentist office your first stop, but sometimes it’s surprisingly easy to forget that fixing fractured teeth is Fairview, Halifax, dentists’ lives’ work. Their options for taking care of your smile are nearly as numerous as the ways you sometimes find yourself in need of their services.

A Variety Of Causes

Like fractures in an arm or a leg, a fractured tooth can take many forms. If you receive an injury or trip and fall, an entire piece may be broken off a tooth, leaving an easily visible empty space where once there was tooth. Nobody would have trouble spotting that variety of dental injury. Sometimes, however, tooth fractures can be much more difficult to detect. They may not be visible to the naked or untrained eye, and they may not even be painful at all times. A very fine crack in a tooth can result in intermittent pain when chewing, or when eating or drinking things that are either particularly hot or particularly cold, but the rest of the time it doesn’t bother you at all. If you’re experiencing intermittent toothaches or pain in teeth while eating, find a local dentist’s office and give them a call. Many are looking for new patients, and even if they’re not, they may be able to provide emergency dental services if need be.

A Variety of Treatments

Just as there are many forms a fractured tooth can take, treatment for a broken tooth can be just as varied. In some cases, the tooth may be able to be repaired by simply putting a missing piece back in place and securing it there. In other cases, a dentist may apply a composite resin or porcelain tooth veneer, or may perform what’s known as a bonded restoration, which is similar to a composite resin veneer, but more localized. If the damage is more extensive, the dentist may decide that a crown is the way to go. Having a tooth crowned involves a couple of visits to the office, but is relatively straightforward, and the result is a repaired tooth that fits with your mouth and bite, and protects the remainder of your existing tooth from further damage.