Teeth are made up of an outer hard tissue covering of enamel and dentine encasing the soft dental pulp. The enamel is the hardest substance of your body and enables you to eat a wide variety of foods of different grades of hardness! However owing to its high inorganic content, enamel is also a brittle substance. Enamel and dentine are harder and more brittle than your bones. So eating really hard foods like ‘chikki’ or some nuts, can cause craze lines and micro cracks in your teeth. A microcrack that reaches the inner pulp will cause pain or sensitivity. A cracked tooth will frequently cause pain on biting. Root canal treated teeth are also more prone to cracks.
How is a cracked tooth diagnosed?
If your dentist suspects a crack, it is best diagnosed using a dental operating microscope – which magnifies and illumines the tooth enabling the dentist to visualize fine details. Your dentist may also recommend a CBCT scan. However it is not always possible to visualize the crack or its full extent.
So what is the treatment of a cracked tooth?
Cracks tend to propagate on their own and can be difficult to treat predictably. A cracked tooth requires immediate treatment. If the crack appears to be confined to the crown portion of the tooth it can usually be treated by a root canal, filling and crown. If the crack extends into the root either initially or at a later stage, the tooth is best extracted.
(Images and videos reproduced with permission from the American Association of Endodontists)