We are often asked how our patients can address chipped, fractured, or broken teeth.
It isn’t too surprising that the primary reasons for chipped or fractured teeth are related to sports. As a Beverly Hills cosmetic dentist, we see this quite often. After athletics, the most common causes for fractured and chipped teeth are related to pre-existing dental procedures such as teeth filling and root canals. As a matter of fact, these conditions pose the highest risk because these teeth are not intact and are not as strong as normal teeth. However, there is a possibility that intact teeth will be broken or fractured when a person bites hard on something in the wrong way. This being said, teeth are more frequently broken as a result of contact sports.
Accidents and sports’ injuries are considered to be very common. As a Beverly Hills cosmetic dentist, this is something I do not like to see. In fact, studies have revealed that almost half of pan american world games´ athletes have had some sort of teeth fractures believed to have occurred sometime during training or competition. Not surprisingly, the sports most closely associated with possible teeth fractures include basketball, wrestling, boxing and karate. However, you should be aware of other non-contact sports which might also result in teeth injuries such as roller-skating and soccer.
Now, if you have had injuries in the past, or if you have had a dental procedure done, such as a fillings on your back molars, it is wise to avoid biting hard on anything and to avoid hard foods. Also, if you are into sports it is important to consider how much contact you will be exposed to. If you think there will be much more contact than in many other sports, it is advisable to wear a mouthguard. Mouthguards are not hard to find and most sports´ store would have them.