3 Habits That Can Chip and Damage Your Teeth

After your 20 baby teeth fall out and your 32 permanent teeth come in, the goal is to preserve them so they serve you for a lifetime. Time often has different plans, however, and those pearly whites can start to show a little wear and tear in the forms of chips and cracks.

While some degeneration is natural, you can speed up the wear and tear if you engage in certain habits, three of which Dr. Juliet Ebrahimian and the team here at Silverlake Smiles review below. 

1. Grinding your teeth

Let’s kick this off with one of the biggest offenders when it comes to tooth damage — teeth grinding, also known as bruxism. This habit is one that’s shared by millions — sleep bruxism affects 15% to 40% of kids and 8% to 10% of adults. Teeth grinding when awake affects 22% to 31% of people.

This habit, which is often in response to stress and anxiety, can apply as much as 250 pounds of force on your teeth. While your teeth are extremely strong, that kind of pressure over the course of years can certainly lead to tooth damage.

The good news is that we offer several solutions to curb this damaging habit, such as night guards and Botox® injections.

2. Using your teeth as tools

You’re trying to open one of those annoying packages that’s tightly wrapped in plastic and, absent a knife or scissors, you use your teeth to break it open. Or maybe you have a loose piece of nail that’s scratching you so you use your teeth to trim the nail down.

This habit of using your teeth as tools can be very damaging and lead to cracks and chips.

3. Chomping on tough items

If you love crunching on popcorn or you like the feeling and sound of chomping ice cubes, these two habits alone have sent scores of people to our dentist chair with chipped teeth.

Treating your chips and tooth damage

The good news about chipped and damaged teeth is that we have options to make your teeth whole again. The more effective solutions that we offer for repairing chipped teeth include:

• Dental veneers
• Crowns for severe cracks or chips
• Dental bonding

For really small chips, we can often buff and polish the tooth to restore it to a better shape that conceals the minor damage.

We would also be remiss if we didn’t point out that you can avoid chipped and damaged teeth by addressing certain risk factors, such as brushing your teeth too hard, which can prematurely wear down the enamel. When you brush, use soft bristles and just gently massage your teeth with the brush. 

As well, it’s also imperative that you stay one step ahead of tooth decay and gum disease through regular dental exams and cleanings.

For more ideas about how to protect your teeth or for addressing existing damage in your teeth, we invite you to contact our Los Angeles office to schedule an appointment. We serve the Silver Lake neighborhood and areas of Los Feliz, Atwater Village, Frogtown, and Echo Park.