Sensitive & Cracked Teeth

  • Do you have sensitive teeth to temperature, sweets or sour foods?
  • Are you avoiding drinking ice cold water or eating ice cream for fear of pain?
  • Is biting into an apple painful?
  • Are you having occasional pain on chewing foods with seeds or hard foods?

If you answered "yes" to any of the above, you may have hypersensitive teeth or a cracked tooth.

What are hypersensitive teeth?

Normal, healthy teeth should feel the cold and hot as cold or hot sensations, without pain and should not react at all to sweet or sour.

Any tooth which feels pain to cold or hot or sensitive to sweet or sour is hypersensitive, meaning is more irritable than normal.

Causes for tooth hypersensitivity can range from cavities and old fillings to root exposure, fractured teeth, to a tooth nerve problem.

We have diagnostic tools to determine the causes of your tooth hypersensitivity and provide the appropriate treatment.

What is a cracked tooth?

Just like the name implies, a cracked tooth is an tooth with a fissure or crack, or a tooth starting to break down. Large fillings, root canal treatments, grinding or clenching and trauma are contributing factors to cracked teeth.

Cracked teeth typically present with pain now and then, when a certain hard food or a small seed "hit the tooth in a certain spot" upon biting down. Sometimes cold or hot sensitivity can also occur.

Diagnosing a cracked tooth can sometimes be challenging, as the symptoms can be vague.

Once we diagnosed a cracked tooth, we will try to stabilize the crack, so it does not progress to a full fracture, by placing a composite filling to bond into the crack. Ideally, a crown (cap) should be placed over a cracked tooth to stabilize the tooth long term.

It is important to try stabilize a cracked tooth as soon as diagnosed, as some cracks can propagate into the tooth roots and if left untreated can lead to the loss of the tooth.

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