A chipped tooth is one of the most common problems we treat at Springbank Hill Dental, and most are repaired in a single appointment. Dr. Wes Prepchuk has completed thousands of fillings and crowns over the past ten years and treats chipped, cracked, and broken teeth at our clinic on Springbank Boulevard in southwest Calgary.

Enamel is the hardest substance in the human body, but it is also brittle. A hard bite, a fall, or years of grinding can chip it. Getting the tooth looked at quickly matters, because a chip that exposes dentin can turn into sensitivity, decay, or a crack that costs you the tooth.

Call 403-454-4757. We open at 7:00 am four days a week and stay open until 8:30 pm on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

First, let us shed some light on what these terms mean. They may sound similar and are sometimes used interchangeably, but they are different situations.

Chipped Tooth

A chip is a small piece of enamel broken off the edge or surface of a tooth. You may feel a sharp edge with your tongue. Small chips often cause no pain, but larger ones expose dentin and cause sensitivity to cold, heat, or sweet food.

Cracked Tooth

A crack runs through the tooth without separating it into pieces. Cracks can be confined to enamel or extend into the dentin, pulp, or root. Pain when you release a bite, rather than when you bite down, is the classic sign.

Broken Tooth

A break removes a larger portion of tooth structure and often exposes the pulp. Breaks are usually painful and need same-day attention.

Knocked-Out Tooth

The whole tooth, root included, comes out of the socket. This is a true emergency, and what you do in the first few minutes decides whether the tooth can be saved. The steps are below.

Some of the common causes of a chipped, cracked, or broken tooth that we encounter at our SW Calgary clinic are:

• Decay that has weakened the tooth from the inside
• Biting hard objects: ice, popcorn kernels, olive pits, pens
• Grinding or clenching, especially at night
• An uneven bite that loads one tooth harder than the rest
• Trauma from a fall, a sports injury, or a collision
• Large old fillings that leave little natural tooth structure around them

Time is the single biggest factor. A permanent tooth put back within 30 minutes has a far better chance of surviving than one put back after an hour.

Done correctly, these can improve the chances of your dentist being able to preserve your tooth:

1. Find the tooth and pick it up by the crown, the chewing surface. Never touch the root.
2. If it is dirty, rinse it briefly in milk or saline. Do not scrub it, do not use soap, and do not hold it under water. Water damages the ligament cells that allow the tooth to reattach.
3. If it is an adult tooth, put it back in the socket straight away and bite gently on a clean cloth to hold it in place.
4. If you cannot reinsert it, store it in milk, in saline, or tucked inside your cheek. Never store a tooth in plain water.
5. Do not reinsert a baby tooth. Pushing a child’s primary tooth back into the socket can damage the permanent tooth developing underneath it.
6. Hold a cold compress against the outside of the face if there is swelling.
7. Call us immediately at (403) 454-4757.

Bring any fragments with you, even small ones. Some pieces can be bonded back into place.

Dr. Prepchuk assesses the tooth on digital X-ray, and on CBCT imaging when the damage may involve the root. The right repair depends on how much tooth structure is left and whether the pulp is involved, not on how the chip looks.

Dental Bonding

Composite resin is shaped directly onto the tooth and hardened with a curing light. Bonding removes little or no healthy enamel, which makes it the most conservative option available, and most cases are finished in one visit. It suits small to moderate chips on front teeth.

Dental Crowns

When a large portion of the tooth is gone, or when the tooth is cracked, a crown caps the whole tooth. A cracked tooth generally needs a crown rather than a filling, because a filling can wedge the crack wider under biting force while a crown holds the tooth together.

Dental Fillings

For a chip on a back tooth where more structure is missing, a composite filling restores the shape and the chewing surface. Springbank Hill Dental is amalgam-free, so nothing we place contains mercury.

Dental Veneers

A veneer covers the front surface of a tooth when the chip is wide or the edge is worn down. Veneers require removing a thin layer of enamel, which does not grow back, so we will tell you when bonding would get you a similar result without that trade-off.

Root Canal Treatment

If the chip or break has exposed the pulp, the nerve has to be treated before the tooth can be rebuilt. Dr. Prepchuk has completed hundreds of root canals over the past decade.

Treatment for Knocked Out Teeth

If the tooth can be saved, we reposition it in the socket and splint it to the neighbouring teeth so it stays steady while the ligament reattaches. Root canal treatment usually follows about seven to ten days later, once the tooth has stabilised. The splint comes off when the tooth is firm again.

If the tooth cannot be saved, we will talk through what replaces it. Dr. Prepchuk places Straumann dental implants and restores them at the same clinic, so an implant, bridge, or partial denture can be planned before the socket heals rather than after.

Chipped a tooth? Call Springbank Hill Dental at (403) 454-4757 or book online. We are at 133-7460 Springbank Blvd SW, open from 7:00 am Wednesday through Saturday and until 8:30 pm on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

New patients are welcome, no referral is needed, and parking is free.