A cracked tooth is one of the most common problems I see in my practice on a daily basis. So, how do you know if your tooth is cracked? Most people assume a cracked tooth will hurt, and they’d be correct…sometimes. Yes, some teeth that develop cracks do hurt, and they typically hurt for a brief period immediately after biting down on something when the biting force is released. This is the classic symptom dentists call “Cracked Tooth Syndrome.” In my experience, these cracks are rarely visible in the tooth and must be detected purely by having the patient bite on a special diagnostic tool, which allows the dentist to determine which cusp of the tooth is affected by the crack.
The instrument we use to locate cracks in teeth.
Sometimes a Q-tip or a rubber eraser can be used as a substitute for this tool. If a crack can be found using such a tool, the most common solution to keep the crack from getting deeper into the tooth is a crown. Crowns, (essentially a “cap” covering the biting surface of the tooth), binds the whole tooth together so that when there is biting force on the tooth, the cracked portion of the tooth is protected, thus eliminating pain from biting. In the majority of cases, a crown eliminates the painful symptoms and keeps the crack from propagating further into the tooth. In some cases, however, if the crack is left untreated, it can cause an unexpected breakage of the tooth or cause damage to the nerve tissue within the tooth called the “dental pulp.” Thus, it’s prudent to have cracked teeth diagnosed and treated appropriately as soon as possible to avoid costly and invasive treatment.
Not all cracks in teeth are painful. Dentists routinely see cracks in teeth when we are removing old fillings that the patient is completely unaware of. Sometimes these cracks are visible on the outside of the tooth and sometimes they are completely hidden, and only evident after the old filling is removed. How these cracks move so deeply into the tooth without causing any pain is a mystery, but I can say with certainty this phenomenon is commonplace, not a rare event.
Cracks that were hidden beneath an old filling.
A crack which has progressed over half-way through a tooth.
A crack that caused a complete splitting of the tooth and required extraction.