4 EXPLANATIONS FOR THOSE STRANGE CHIPS IN YOUR MOUTH

March 23, 2022

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Women Covering Her Teeth — Phoenix, AZ — Desert Dental

Many Americans love to chew on hard or crunchy foods, from chips and peanuts to hard candies and other challenging menu items. However, when you bite down and your teeth make contact with some unexpected hard lump or chip, you may quite literally have bitten off more than you can chew.

The presence of strange chips in your mouth don't necessarily spell trouble, but they can signal some unwanted changes either in your dental work or in your teeth themselves. If you wonder what you just bit down on and whether it requires professional attention, consider the following four possible explanations.

1. Dislodged Tartar

Hard, crunchy chips in your mouth often reveal themselves as bits of tartar. When food debris, saliva, bacteria, and mucous mix together on your tooth surfaces, they create a sticky substance called plaque. Over time, the plaque accumulates and hardens into tartar, which usually stays on the teeth until professional cleaning removes it.

Once in a while, tiny pieces of tartar can break away from your teeth. The sudden appearance of hard little chips in your mouth may naturally cause you to think that you've broken a tooth. However, you can usually tell tartar chips by their yellow, brown, or even black appearance. See your dentist if doubts remain.

2. Bone Spicules

Tooth extractions can vary in their invasiveness. Front teeth may come out without much work at all, while molars and wisdom teeth can call for additional effort. In many cases, a dentist will break the tooth into pieces to make extraction easier. This kind of surgery can leave behind little slivers of bone called bone spicules.

If you've recently undergone a molar or wisdom tooth extraction, your dentist removed any obvious spicules at that time. However, spicules still stuck to the jawbone can escape this step. When these spicules finally break away, you end up biting down on (or spitting out) these tiny bone chips.

You should see stray bone spicules disappear on their own within a few weeks of your dental procedure. If you still experience discomfort from slivers of bone that refuse to make their exit, your dentist can remove them for you.

3. Tooth Breakage

Occasionally, a hard chip in your mouth can come from a damaged tooth. An impact to the face or an unlucky bite into hard food can chip part of the enamel away from a tooth. A weak tooth may even break into multiple fragments in your mouth. If the chip exposes sensitive inner tissue, bite pressure or extreme temperatures can cause pain.

If you've kept the fragments of the damaged tooth, bring them to your dentist immediately. In many cases, dentists can reattach a tooth fragment by bonding the fragment back into place. If you can't save the fragments, a permanent crown may fix the tooth's appearance, reduce sensitivity, and prevent infection.

4. Tooth Breakage

Once people receive dental fillings, they tend to forget all about them. These plugs of metal or composite materials usually do their job without creating any discomfort or inconvenience. Unfortunately, changes in your enamel or the fillings themselves can cause them to wear out, lose their grip on the enamel, and fall out.

If the lost filling remains intact and the tooth that held it hasn't experienced any changes, the filling may only need re-bonding to the enamel. However, if new decay has set into the tooth, or if the filling has cracked or broken, your dentist will simply replace it with a new one.

Although a lost filling doesn't count as a dental emergency unless it causes you pain, you shouldn't let the problem go unattended. That hole in your tooth can invite bacteria into the pulp chamber, in which case you might need to undergo a root canal or extraction.

If you struggle with bone chips, a lost filling, a tooth fracture, or some other issue that has left mysterious chips in your mouth, schedule an appointment at Desert Dental. We can determine the nature of the problem and perform any necessary repairs or other procedures to get you feeling confident about your smile again.

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