Cracked tooth syndrome

Incomplete fractures through the body of the tooth may cause pain of apparently idiopathic origin. This is referred to as the "cracked tooth syndrome." The patient usually complains of pain, ranging from mild to excruciating, at the initiation or release of the biting pressure . The most reliable diagnostic method is to try to reproduce the pain. When the patient bites on a cotton applicator or rubber wheel, the fracture segments may separate, and the pain may be reproduced at the initiation or release of the biting pressure.

Transillumination of tooth marked

Close examination of the crown of the tooth may disclose an enamel crack, which may be better visualized by using a dye or by transilluminating the tooth with a fiberoptic light or with the help of a tooth slooth. Removal of intracoronal restoration in suspected teeth may reveal a crack in the enamel running into the dentin. Such teeth may be sensitive for years because of an incomplete fracture of enamel and dentin that produces only mild pain; eventually, this pain becomes severe when the fracture involves the pulp chamber.

The pulp in these teeth may become necrotic. Some of these cracked teeth fracture completely, and the patient will then be free of symptoms. If the patient has an incomplete fracture of only the enamel and dentin, a full-crown restoration immobilizing the fragments may be successful.

Cracked tooth syndrome Resources
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