Did a recent teeth cleaning make my teeth more likely to chip and break?

June 6, 2015 7:10 AM

I ate some popcorn today and chipped the back of one of my lower front teeth. There is a sizable chunk missing. I didn't even crunch down on an unpopped kernel or anything, so this is a bit strange. I'm wondering if the recent teeth cleaning I had - which involved a heavy amount of scraping to the back of my teeth - somehow weakened my enamel and made it more likely to break.

Is this likely? I'm just wondering because I'll obviously need to make an appointment to see the dentist to have the tooth repaired, and I'm wondering if it's a good idea to find another practice (it was my first visit to the practice that did the most recent cleaning.)

posted by ladybird to Health & Fitness (8 answers total)

I doubt that the instruments that scraped tartar would damage healthy enamel. But if your enamel is weakened (acid erosion, tooth grinding), the shearing force of just about any kind of chewing/biting may be enough to cause occasional chipping.
posted by maudlin at 7:33 AM on June 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

I can't help with the what caused it question, but I have broken 3 teeth and they all broke just like that. I was eating breakfast cereal, or ribs , or something and suddenly noticed a piece had broken off without any obvious biting on something hard.
posted by interplanetjanet at 7:34 AM on June 6, 2015 [3 favorites]

I had a similar experience years ago. I was eating something soft and the top of one of my canines just crumbled.
posted by Blue Jello Elf at 8:06 AM on June 6, 2015

It's pretty common for hygienists to scrape REALLY hard at tough tartar. I've never had breakage as a result, and I've been to many different hygienists over the years. My guess would be the tooth already had a weak spot.
posted by Koko at 8:07 AM on June 6, 2015

There's a possibility that the cleaning hastened the inevitable by some unknowable amount of time, but it is very unlikely to be the cause. The beginning of the process that ends in a broken tooth (unless it involves a sudden blow to the face) starts years before.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:15 AM on June 6, 2015 [3 favorites]

How old are you? I ask because my dentist told me that the older I get, I'm less likely to get cavities, but far more likely to break teeth, so no popcorn, Grape-Nuts, opening stuff with teeth, etc.
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 10:10 AM on June 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

If the tooth doesn't hurt, you might not actually need to get it repaired. I chipped the top corner of a lower front tooth in a similar non-event (definitely not related to a cleaning; it'd been a long while) and the dentist just asked if if it was bothering me, shrugged, and said it'd be tricky to patch and he could file down any sharp bits but over time that would happen naturally anyway.
posted by teremala at 10:45 AM on June 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

I chipped around a third of a tooth off a few years back eating popcorn, and at the time it was a good 3 or 4 years since I'd seen a dentist (what can I say, I'm British... though I brush properly twice a day and otherwise take good care of them).

Personally I'm inclined to blame the popcorn.
posted by bifter at 3:48 PM on June 6, 2015