True Story - What to Do if You Chip Your Tooth

If you can see it in the picture, I had about an 1/8th inch chip come off my upper right front tooth- right on the edge. I had hardly noticed it all day, and that's hard to imagine because I work in a dental office and after about a year the first thing you notice in people is their teeth. But somehow I hadn't seen it all day, and had been interacting with people and talking to them and doing meetings with them. Never a clue.

Funny thing was, as soon as I saw it I completely introverted on it. Had everyone been looking at this gigantic hole in my tooth all day??!! Now you might be thinking that seems a bit of a melodramatic reaction, but with mouth issues you often can't help but "see" with your tongue and it tends to exaggerate the situation... a lot.

Then I began to remember a friend who had chipped his exact same front tooth. He was one of those smiles-alot people, the good-natured type who is always happy to see you and making jokes- the point is he was know for his good-natured large smile.. with "teeth". And that chip was the first thing I'd notice when he'd see me and start talking and smiling. But he went around for months with this minor chip in his front tooth and it apparently was the first thing people would notice because he eventually stopped smiling as much, and began to worry about it. He'd end up doing one of those tight-lipped smiles so he didn't show his teeth.

Of course, I'd been on him to come in and get it fixed up as our officewas know for its cosmetic dentistry- our lead dentist has 23 years experience in cosmetic going back to when she worked with some of the pioneers in porcelain veneers. That's Dr. Maryam Seifi. But he wouldn't, guess he thought it was too expensive, or it'd be too involved a fix... or maybe not enough time.

Eventually I prevailed and he came in one night during our late hours, at 8pm after work. It took about 15-20 minutes with a tooth bonding and you afterwards you couldn't even notice the tooth had ever been chipped. In the end, the fix was a fraction of the time spent worrying about it or concentrating on covering the smile so the chipped tooth didn't show.

Based on his dental experience I thought I should get one of those done- a bonding. But even after I told him to get a bonding, and he got one- I really didn't know what a "bonding" was. I thought it was when you bonded a tooth to another, or something. So I was kinda confused with he fixed his chipped tooth with a "bonding". But as it turns out its actually just a material bonded to your existing tooth structure that is colored to match your existing tooth. Its used for all kinds of tooth fix-ups, and cosmetic make overs. Real simple stuff. Handles mild chips and cracks easy-pease.

So, I asked the dentist to take a look and she said she could do it after work that day and a bonding would work perfect. She told me that based on the chip it would be good to do it right away because while it was a "hole" in the tooth, it still had all the surrounding structure left intact which meant when the bonding was done it would be pretty strong. Had the entire side edge chipped off, a bonding could have been done but it wouldn't have been as structurally strong. That night after work she stayed a few minutes extra and bingo- no more chip!

Now we could end the story here, but there was still the mystery of why at 32 I'd get my first major tooth chip? There had been no trauma, no hard foods bitten into, no full frontal face plants on the sidewalk, nothing to account for it. Then she showed me this picture of the back of my teeth...

Can you see the hairline vertical white streaks? Those are stress fractures. Like in bones from sports injuries and falls and stuff. And how does one get stress fractures from having no sports activities, no accidental falls with trauma to the mouth or teeth and no TMJ issues? Nail biting. Yep, that's right. I'm a nail biter, and years of it have simply snuck up on me. Its enamel on enamel and over time it created structural damage to the tooth. Bummer. Not a major issue, but I definitely need to stop biting my nails- doctor's orders!

Its been 3 weeks now since I got the bonding and no troubles, even been using a nail clipper. But nail biting is not the only Common Habits that Harm Your Teeth... read more.

That's my true story. Hope it helps.

Please let me know your feedback

-Shawn

PS: Other tooth bonding before and after photos.