Enamel is the hardest substance in the human body, designed to protect your teeth from the daily wear and tear of chewing your favorite foods. However, enamel has a major weakness: repetitive, hard friction.
Unfortunately, many people have a habit of unintentionally targeting enamel’s weakness with nail biting.
At Lighthouse Dental Care in Burlington, we frequently treat patients who have unknowingly thinned out and weakened their front teeth through years of chronic nail-biting. It’s important to understand the risk that nail biting poses to your teeth and how to address it.
Every time your front teeth collide to clip a tough fingernail, the impact sends a shockwave through the enamel. Over time, the repetitive impact creates tiny, invisible cracks called micro-fractures. While you can’t see them at first, these weak points eventually give way under normal chewing pressure. Eventually, they can lead to sudden, jagged chips on the biting edges of your most visible teeth.
As nail-biting wears down the translucent outer layer of enamel, it exposes the underlying layer of your tooth, called dentin. Dentin is much softer than enamel and has a naturally yellow tint. When dentin is exposed, two things happen:
You don’t have to settle for jagged, worn-down edges. If years of nail-biting have left your teeth brittle, sensitive, or damaged, we’re here to help.
At Lighthouse Dental Care, we can instantly restore the smooth, youthful contours of your front teeth using restorative dentistry in Burlington. Depending on the type and severity of damage, we may recommend bonding, fillings, or crowns. Our goal is to rebuild the protective shield your smile needs to look and feel its best.
Schedule a consultation today with our restorative dentist in Burlington.
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