Chipped tooth: what to do and how it is fixed

If you’ve chipped a tooth, keep any fragment, rinse with warm water, cover a sharp edge with sugar-free gum or dental wax and book a dentist. Most small chips on front teeth are rebuilt with composite edge bonding in one visit, which is £195 per tooth at Toothi in Edgware. If the tooth is painful, swollen or loose, it needs urgent care first: an emergency appointment is £65.

Most chips are cosmetic and not dangerous. For the first few hours you just need to protect your tongue and lips from the sharp edge, keep the tooth comfortable and get it looked at.

• ✓  Find the fragment. Keep it in a little milk or saliva and bring it with you. A clean break on a front tooth can sometimes be bonded back on.
• ✓  Rinse gently. Warm water is fine. Feel the edge carefully with your tongue.
• ✓  Cover sharp edges. Orthodontic wax or a piece of sugar-free chewing gum stops the edge catching your tongue or cheek.
• ✓  Chew on the other side. Avoid hard, sticky, very hot or very cold food until the tooth is checked.
• ✓  Use your usual painkiller if it aches, following the packet instructions.
• ✓  Book in. Call 020 3148 2444 or WhatsApp us a photo and we’ll tell you how soon it needs seeing.

This page is a general guide, not emergency triage. Get urgent care if you have pain, swelling, a loose tooth or bleeding that won’t stop. Those signs can mean the nerve is involved or the crack runs deeper than it looks.

• ✓  Throbbing or lasting pain, or sharp pain with hot and cold.
• ✓  Swelling of the gum or face.
• ✓  A pink or red dot in the middle of the broken surface.
• ✓  The tooth is loose or has moved, or the break goes under the gum.

An emergency appointment at Toothi is £65 and we’re open seven days. See our emergency dentist page. If facial swelling is spreading or affecting your breathing or swallowing, or you’ve had a head injury, go to A&E or call 999.

The repair depends on how much tooth is missing and which tooth it is. For a small chip on a front tooth we’d usually suggest composite bonding: little or no drilling, and it’s done in one visit.

Prices are fixed and taken from our fees page. For a full breakdown, read our chipped tooth repair cost guide.

Bonding rebuilds the missing corner with tooth-coloured composite, shaped and polished by hand so it blends with the teeth beside it. For a simple edge chip there’s usually no injection and no drilling of healthy tooth.

Every bonding price includes the consultation, shade match, treatment and a review. If you’d like whiter teeth, whiten first. Composite doesn’t change colour with whitening, so we match it to your new shade. Find out more on our composite bonding page and our guide to edge bonding. If it’s existing bonding that has chipped, see our guide to composite bonding repair.

A chipped molar is less a cosmetic problem than a structural one. Back teeth take most of your biting force. Small chips are often smoothed or repaired with a white filling. Bigger breaks, especially on a tooth that already has a large filling or a root canal, may need a crown to stop it splitting further.

Molars often chip because an old filling has weakened the tooth around it, or because of night-time grinding. If grinding is the cause, a nightguard (£195) protects the repair. Don’t leave a chipped molar for months. A small break can turn into a crack that runs down the root, and that’s much harder to save.

• ✓  Teeth aren’t tools. Don’t use them to open packets or bottles, or to bite thread.
• ✓  Go easy on ice, hard sweets and nail biting.
• ✓  Wear a mouthguard for contact sport.
• ✓  Treat grinding. Worn, flat or chipped edges on several teeth are a common sign.
• ✓  Keep up check-ups (£55) so weak fillings are spotted before they break.