You Chipped Your Tooth: Now What?
You chipped your tooth, and you don't have a dentist appointment any time soon. Do you call the emergency dentist for care? Do you try to find the chip that came out of your tooth? Should you try to bandage your tooth in some way? Can you eat solid foods until you get your tooth looked at? Are you going to need expensive dental care to fix the situation?
Or maybe the chip isn't that bad. Can you just pretend it never happened and just casually mention it if you remember to at your next dentist appointment. So what do you do when you chip a tooth? This guide can help you.
Assess the situation
Did you chip your tooth in an accident? If so, check your mouth for other injuries, such as cut gums, loose or missing teeth, or deeper cracks. Check your body for injury as well, including concussions. Your overall health and wellness matters, not just your chipped tooth. If you are overall safe and the chipped tooth is minor, you can relax and do what comes next. If you're seriously injured or unsure, call for emergency services or seek urgent care.
If your chipped tooth is the result of biting on something hard or by suddenly jarring your teeth, then check your chip to see how bad it is. Rinse your mouth out with salt water to clean out debris. If you can locate the chipped part of the tooth, that's great; put the chip in a glass of milk or back in your mouth to preserve it until you can get to the dentist.
Call your dentist
Depending on how severe your dental damage is, your dentist may arrange for emergency dental care, or they may not find your situation to be alarming. Call your dentist and let them know what happened and how large your chip is in your tooth. If you have tooth sensitivity following your chipped tooth or any mouth pain, you may have nerve damage in your tooth and need emergency dental care.
Your dentist can schedule you for their next closest appointment or can opt to see you right away, depending on what you discuss with them regarding your tooth. Your dentist can do a variety of things to repair a chip, from smoothing your tooth enamel to prevent snags, reinforcing your tooth with caps, or performing other dental tasks to repair the chip.