What is a cracked tooth?
A cracked tooth is defined as a tooth that has a fracture, split, crack or craze running somewhere through it. A tooth fracture can exist inside the tooth or in the outer tooth covering. The crack can run in any direction, can penetrate through the whole tooth, or just a portion of the tooth. Some dentists will take a very aggressive approach to a cracked tooth, while other say just wait for the tooth bit to fall off and repair it then. Which direction your dentist takes may be determined by the presenting symptoms and the area of the tooth he thinks may be at risk. However, there are risks in leaving a cracked tooth untreated. It can tooth can crack further compromising more of the tooth, there is more possibility of infection setting in, the tooth may even split in half requiring the whole tooth to be extracted.
