symptoms
Chipped a tooth? Size decides the story.
Chips run a spectrum: a sand-grain edge your tongue found before your eyes did, a visible corner off a front tooth, or a chunk of molar in your palm courtesy of popcorn. Size and sensitivity sort out the urgency — and if the chip came with pain or a visible pink spot in the break, skip to the emergency page and call today.
Triage by size, fixes by page
Tiny and smooth-able: painless, cosmetic, often polished out in minutes — book at convenience, but do book, since chips concentrate stress and like to grow. Visible corner, no pain: bonding territory, usually one visit, covered on the bonding page; save any piece in milk on the off chance it can be reattached. Big break, sensitivity, or a molar giving way over an old filling: crown conversation, this week — cover sharp edges with drugstore dental wax meanwhile.
Whatever the size, chew elsewhere until it's seen. Teeth don't heal; they only recruit repairs.
Questions we hear in the chair
- It doesn't hurt. Can it wait?
- Days, yes; seasons, no. Painless chips still propagate under chewing force, and the small-repair window is the cheap one. A quick look sizes it honestly.
- Will a bonded chip be visible?
- Done carefully, no — resin is layered and matched until the repair disappears. Front-tooth chips are bread-and-butter bonding work.
- Why do my teeth keep chipping?
- Repeat chipping usually has an upstream cause: grinding, a bite that loads edges unevenly, or big old fillings leaving thin walls. Fix the pattern, not just the chips — that's an exam conversation worth having once.
Clinical content reviewed by Dr. Marissa DeAngelis, Senior Dentist.
Serving Crozet for 50+ years. At least two full-time doctors in the building, Monday through Friday. Call for current availability.