Swallowed a bit of my tooth

[Peggy]

I was eating lunch today and a bit of my back tooth broke off and I accidentally swallowed that bit of tooth that broke off. Now there is a sharp edge left on my back tooth which is very sharp and I think it has cut the side of my tongue.

I think there is not much of my tooth left and looking at the hole left now, it looks pretty large. Can anything be done with a tooth that is so badly broken? Is there a chance that I might lose the tooth? If possible, I would like to keep it because I have lost the one in front of it and I am worried that if this tooth goes as well, there will be a problem with chewing on that side of my mouth.

Please advise.

[Dr Mohsen J. Esfahani]

Thank you for your post.

A broken tooth can usually be restored with a crown or an onlay as long as enough tooth tissue remains above the gum level. A tooth that is badly broken down well below the gum level may have to be removed as it will not be possible to adequately restore the tooth or clean it properly afterwards. In that situation you may wish to replace the tooth with an implant.