For some patients, no matter how well they maintain their oral hygiene, signs of wear can appear on the surface of the teeth for various reasons.
Teeth can chip and crack quite quickly under certain conditions, especially if they come into contact with a hard food. Regardless of the patient’s age, tooth cracking can occur, often independent of how oral hygiene is performed.
There are adults who experience severe enamel problems.
Some of us are endowed from birth with hard structures, such as enamel, of little or no consistency.
Therefore, this thin layer of enamel will tend to crack or even fracture.
Causes
Among the reasons that can lead to cracked or even fractured teeth, we will present the following:
Genetic factors– as mentioned previously, in some cases, the patient may inherit a genetic baggage that. involves a thin and brittle enamel layer.
Defects in enamel genesis – during the intrauterine period and the first years of life, the hard structures of temporary and permanent teeth are formed.
If certain defects or disturbances in the organ-genesis process occur, the teeth will suffer enamel or dentin defects, resulting in increased porosity of the hard structures or even loss of hard substance.
Gastro-esophageal reflux disease – enamel disintegration and thinning can be caused by increased amounts of acid flowing back from the stomach, down the esophagus and into the oral cavity. Patients may also identify this condition if they have symptoms such as dry mouth or heartburn. Among other reflux pathologies can be bulimia, a primarily psychological problem. A patient in this situation will overeat and then vomit. As the vomiting reflux occurs, stomach acid will again come into contact with the enamel, weakening it.
Bruxism – responsible for enamel damage may be bruxism, which is a pathology in which the patient, based on stress, grinds his teeth. This habit, which most patients unconsciously exhibit during the night, reduces the thickness of the enamel, especially in the incisal and occlusal areas where antagonist teeth come into contact.
Untimely toothbrushing, practiced in an aggressive way, with movements of increased force, the use of hard toothbrushes or the use of toothpastes with abrasive agents of increased granulation can produce the same effect as mentioned above.
Your dentist can help. During the consultation, he or she can find out when your teeth show enamel wear, cracks, fractures or exposed dentin.
Moreover, by carrying out a good quality anamnesis, looking at certain aspects and asking targeted questions, the dentist can also detect the cause of these unhealthy habits for the dental units (differential diagnosis) i
Once the existence of these conditions has been established, the teeth can be treated by restorative methods using composite materials, glass ionomers, compomers or zirconium (inlays), by direct techniques or requiring the intervention of the dental laboratory.
