A chip on the front tooth can happen for many reasons. If you bite your nails, or chew on pen lids; eating crunchy hard food such as the baguettes, crusty bread, crusts on pizza, pork scratching, bread with seeds. If you enjoy these types of food you are more likely to chip or worse still crack your tooth.
A client came to see Time Dental in Farnham due to chipping his upper front incisor. He had not noticed it but it was his wife who spotted it! The gentleman was very conscious of the chip as he was out in public alot due to his work and found that he was naturally not smiling due to the chip. This is a very common reaction to chips or cracks on your front teeth. You begin to smile less and it can even affect your self confidence.
On inspection the chip was quite minimal. Dr Rashid at Time Dental was able to restore the tooth with composite bonding. This is a process where a white composite filling is bonded onto the fractured portion of the tooth. The bond is very strong and will last many years as long as it is looked after properly. Bonding white filling is one way of restoring the tooth with a very conservative technique. If the chip was larger another option would be to place a porcelain veneer on the tooth or even a porcelain crown. Veneers and crowns are lab made and are normally recommended if the fracture is too large to successfully restore with composite bonding. Both crowns and veneers involve a two step process. The first visit is to prepare and take impressions of the tooth. A temporary veneer or crown is fabricated at the chair side to protect the prepared tooth. The lab then makes stone models of the impressions and the master ceramist will layer the crown or veneer by hand. The veneer or crown is then sent back to the dentist where he will bond or cement the veneer or crown in place.
