Your teeth are covered in enamel, a strong outer layer that protects them. But it isn’t indestructable. A little rough-housing at home, an accident on the playing field, or biting something like hard candy or ice, and you’ve got a chipped tooth. If that happens, call us at Stephen T. Ratcliff Family and Cosmetic Dentistry in Arlington.
Small chips can usually be fixed with a process called bonding. With bonding, we use a composite resin material. It’s applied to the tooth with an adhesive substance and shaped to match the broken part of the tooth. When the shape is right, we harden it with an ultraviolet light.
Sounds easy enough, and in fact, it is a fairly straight-forward process. In most cases we don’t need to numb the area being worked on. The composite resin can be matched to the color of your existing teeth. Once we’re done, you may even forget it’s there.
A chipped tooth doesn’t always cause pain, but sometimes it does. You can ease any pain wth an over-the-counter pain reliever.
There may be a jagged edge on the tooth that irritates your tongue and cheek. In that case you can cover it with a piece of sugarless gum, or even wax parafin. That will provide enough protection until you can get into our office.
You’ll want to get here as soon as possible, and we will get you into one of our chairs right away. In the meantime, however, you may get hungry. If you need to eat but find it uncomfortable, choose softer foods that don’t need much chewing (soup is a good choice) and avoid biting down.
At Stephen T. Ratcliff Family and Cosmetic Dentistry in Arlington we have used bonding to repair many chipped teeth. People from Mansfield and Grand Prairie come to our office for emergency and restorative dentistry, and much more! Call us to schedule your next checkup today!
Contact Stephen Ratcliff Family & Cosmetic Dentistry:
817-274-7875
Location (Tap to open in Google Maps):
909 W Mitchell St
Arlington, Texas
76013
