If you had a tooth injured in an accident, would you know what to do? The response to a dental emergency can depend on the severity of the injury. If the tooth is completely knocked out, or has suffered significant damage, you should seek treatment as soon as possible. However, minor damage may require nothing more than a cosmetic dental treatment to resolve. No matter how severe the trauma may be, your dentist can do the necessary work to fix your tooth, and restore your smile.
Restorative work on a damaged tooth can help with your appearance, and keep you from experiencing health complications. If a tooth is cracked badly enough, the nerve tissue in the tooth may be vulnerable. Your dentist may need to perform a root canal before any other treatments can be performed. If a tooth’s structure is compromised, it can be restored by placing a dental crown over the tooth.
Not every tooth injury will leave the health of that tooth in jeopardy. In some cases, damage only has an effect on how the tooth looks. Bonding and contouring procedures can enable your dentist to address several different types of cosmetic damage. You can have a small chip contoured, so that it does not leave your tooth jagged or uneven. Bonding can hide chips and cracks, and it is also a useful technique if you need to hide an unattractive change in a tooth’s color that has occurred after an injury.