ABFRACTION

When you bend a stick too much, the stick breaks. When you grind on a tooth too much, the tooth flexes and the area that bends dissolves leaving a notch on the root. The notch is at the bottom front of the dental crown near the gums and is called a dental abfraction..

The most common teeth to suffer with dental abfractions are the bicuspid teeth, especially the upper bicuspids but the notches can also be found on cuspids and molars. The notch is created because the minerals that form the dental root dissolve due to the grinding pressures. This exposes the tooth nerve and causes tooth sensitivity to hot and cold. Desensitizing toothpastes help reduce the sensitivity, but the real cause is tooth grinding.

Usually we fill the abfraction notches with white dental fillings, but because the tooth still flexes and bends, these white filling could pop out. We recommend that patients gets mouth guard that prevents grinding at the same appointment as we fill the notches on their teeth.