Why Are My Teeth Chipping All of a Sudden?

Since our smiles are often the first thing people notice about us, keeping them healthy becomes an integral part of life early on. Although our teeth naturally start to discolor as we age and can even shift into new positions, these gradual changes can be fixed with a bit of cosmetic dentistry help. 

But what happens when your teeth start chipping? 

Unlike problems that can be fixed with whitening treatments and braces, chipped teeth may need expensive dental restorations to correct. While an occasional nick in the tooth can happen from accidents and injuries, some people notice that their teeth become increasingly easy to chip.

If your enamel is prone to cracks and chips, a deeper issue is causing your teeth to weaken. Here, we’ll discuss some of the most common reasons your teeth may be chipping all of a sudden.

Grinding Your Teeth

Do you wake up with morning headaches? Does it seem like you can never get enough sleep, although you know you’ve been getting the solid 6-8 hours you’re supposed to have? Are your teeth a little unusually sensitive?

You may be a tooth grinder if you answered yes to any of those questions.

Bruxism and Chipped Teeth

Jaw clenching and teeth grinding while sleeping is officially termed “sleep bruxism,” a subconscious sleep movement disorder. There are many causes of bruxism, but it’s usually linked with stress and anxiety.

However, it’s also often seen in patients with obstructive sleep apnea and those taking certain meds, like SSRIs (Keep reading: Managing the Side Effects of SSRI Teeth Grinding).

Grinding teeth sounds harmless — until you realize you can put hundreds of pounds of pressure on your teeth while you sleep. Now, imagine that much bite force happening for hours while you don’t even realize it. The result leads to problems like:

• Flattened teeth
• Weak enamel
• Chips and cracks

The extra strain on your jaw can cause dental issues, jaw pain, and neck and shoulder tightness. Left untreated, it can lead to a temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD). This painful condition happens when the TMJ (which connects your jaw and skull and moves your mouth) becomes inflamed or dislocated.

Stopping Bruxism Damage

Many studies on bruxism link the condition to various common causes. Yours might be stress-related or a side effect of your medication. It could also be genetic or from certain lifestyle habits you have.

Whatever the reason, treating bruxism starts with a visit to your doctor to uncover the cause behind these behaviors.

Luckily, your weakened and chipped teeth don’t have to wait until the problem is solved before they’re safe from the bruxing behaviors. A night guard is the first line of defense against grinding and clenching damage to your teeth.

Night guards are worn over your upper or lower teeth while you’re asleep. They form a protective barrier that keeps the teeth from making contact, which stops the jaw muscles from clenching and becoming overused. 

Note that not all night guards are the same. You can buy one over the counter, but that isn’t designed for your particular edges and gaps. Professional night guards custom-made for you provide the best protection from grinding. 

Chips caused by grinding will need a little cosmetic TLC to repair, but you can stop the damage where it is with a custom-fit night guard.

Check out our high-quality night guards at JS Dental Lab, where you can order your night guard and have an impression kit sent to you from your couch!

Chronic Poor Oral Health

When your teeth are healthy, they can handle almost anything you throw at them. Stronger than the human bone, the average tooth has a 30,000-pound bite force resistance. 

Teeth are made up of four layers. The outside layer is enamel — the hardest substance in your body. Enamel consists of minerals like:

• Phosphorus
• Magnesium
• Calcium

The densely packed composition of these substances protects your teeth from everyday wear and tear that leads to decay. 

Why Your Daily Oral Health Habits Matter

However, even though enamel is so hard, it can become weak over time if you don’t practice good oral hygiene.

Cavities, tooth decay, and a lack of minerals in your diet weaken your teeth from the inside out. Aggressive brushing or using anything other than a soft-bristled toothbrush can wear away the enamel from the outside.

The good news is that enamel can be restrengthened by:

• Using a fluoride toothpaste
• Taking mineral supplements
• Boosting your oral health routine

Brush twice a day (at least) and floss daily. Follow up with an enamel-strengthening mouthwash, which can help remineralize your teeth and fight against decay.

Shifting your daily habits to create a robust oral health routine, along with visiting your dentist regularly for cleanings and exams, may be all you need to strengthen your enamel.

If that’s what was causing your teeth damage, consistent positive dental health changes can help you avoid further chips and cracks.

Aggressive Biting

Maybe you were so excited to eat that bite of deliciousness on your plate that you bit too hard, and your teeth landed on your fork. Or, you’re an athlete who may have forgotten your protective mouth guard and gotten one too many jostles to the head.

No matter what the reason for your hardcore chomping, these aggressive bites are not only painful, but they can lead to cracked teeth.

Even if you don’t play contact sports, you’re not out of the woods yet. 

Chronic biting habits, like eating hard candy, chewing on ice, hard foods (think: apples, nuts, and raw veggies), or fingernail gnawing, have caused more than a few people to chip a tooth!

Since sugary and acidic foods wear down tooth enamel, it’s wise to avoid those sweet and tart treats.

You can still eat fruits and vegetables as long as your teeth are healthy. But if you’re noticing signs of weak enamel, consider switching to cooked instead of raw veggies and softer fruits like cantaloupe and honeydew.

Too Many Acidic Foods and Beverages

Soda is as common as water in today’s society, but the acid in this beverage harms your enamel. The more you eat or drink acidic foods and beverages, the weaker your teeth become, leaving them prone to chipping.

Acids cause your protective enamel to wear away. Without the hard outer shell, your teeth are easy prey for cavity- and infection-causing bacteria. 

Once those layers of enamel are gone, it’s a permanent loss, and chipping is a natural consequence.

How can you tell if your favorite acidic meal is causing enamel erosion? Before your teeth start chipping, you may notice symptoms like:

• Temperature sensitivity to hot and cold items or sweets
• Yellowing teeth
• Cavities
• Changes in the fit of your fillings and other restorations

Want to prevent further chipping?

Talk to your dentist about cosmetic fixes, such as veneers or bonding (more about those later), and stay away from citrus, citrus flavor, carbonation, and sour items. This list includes tomatoes, sticky foods like raisins and caramel, and sports drinks, too!

You can also limit erosion by increasing your saliva production with extra water. If you’re eating sugary or acidic foods, wash them down with plenty of H2O. Use a straw with carbonated or sugary drinks to limit the liquid's contact with your teeth.

In addition to what you’re eating and drinking, certain medical conditions can also cause the same kind of tooth erosion. Acid reflux, GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease), and bulimia cause stomach acid to enter the esophagus and mouth. If you don’t brush your teeth right away, the bacteria left behind can lead to erosion, weak teeth, and chipping.

Normal Aging

Our bodies are constantly changing. Some of these changes are visible, especially when we’re younger. But one seeming constant is our adult — or permanent — teeth.

Once your baby teeth are gone and your adult set is firmly in place, you know you must take care of them. You only get one set! Yet, even your teeth change over time.

Typical signs of aging come from factors like poor dental care (discoloration, cavities, decay) and wear and tear from eating, drinking, and grinding. Enamel can thin and crack, showing the next layer of dentin underneath. 

Dentin is porous and yellowish in color. When it’s exposed, it makes your teeth appear discolored. This layer protects your nerves from hot and cold sensations, so enamel thinning and dental thickening cause sensitive teeth.

The other parts of your mouth — the gums and jawbone — begin to change over time, too. Bone tissue naturally decreases, and the gums recede from the tooth. The roots are painfully exposed. As bone loss happens, the teeth can shift, changing their shape and leading to those aggressive bites mentioned earlier.

Keep up those check-ups at the dentist, avoid sticky, hard, sugary, and acidic food, and eat nutritious meals. For grinders, be sure to wear your night guard every night to protect your teeth from bruxism damage.

How to Fix a Chipped Tooth

Sometimes, it’s too late to prevent chipping. The good news is there are some things you can do to minimize the effect of your damaged tooth on your smile.

Severe chips, where the damage enters the tooth root or the pulp is exposed, may need a root canal. Exposed pulp is susceptible to infection. A root canal removes the damaged tissue and then covers the gap with a crown or similar restoration to save the broken tooth.

Chips with solely visible effects and no harm to the root system can be covered with cosmetic dentistry help.

Fixing Visible Chips

Small chips don’t always pose a danger to oral health, but they can be annoying or harmful to your self-esteem, especially if the chip is on a front tooth. Cosmetic dentistry solutions are available at most dental offices, although they’re not usually covered by insurance.

Talk to your dentist to find out whether any of the following treatment options might work for you:

• Dental crowns: Caps and crowns can cover large chips when decay is the culprit. The tooth is filed down, and a cap is adhered to the remaining enamel, protecting the sensitive inner layers and covering the visible damage.
• Dental veneers: Veneers cover the surface of a chipped tooth. The thin layer is placed over the tooth like an artificial nail to your fingernail. Instead of covering just the chip (like dental bonding), a composite resin or porcelain veneer is shaped into the exact design of the damaged tooth and then placed over the whole front surface.

Minor chips caused by hard biting or facial injury can be fixed with these cosmetic solutions. The occasional chip happens, but if you’re dealing with chips plural, it’s vital to address the “why” behind the visible damage and save the rest of your teeth.

Conclusion

Harder than bone and a solid 5 out of 10 on the Moh’s Scale of Hardness (somewhere between steel and titanium), your teeth should last you a lifetime.

But so many factors go into the health of your enamel, including your dental hygiene, but also internal issues. Some medical conditions, medications, and genetics can predispose you to teeth that are more likely to chip.

If your teeth are chipping because of nutrients or a medical problem, visit your dentist or doctor to learn how to treat the issue. When bruxism is causing those chips, head to JS Dental Lab to discover how a custom-fit night guard can save your teeth from further damage!

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