Improving The Appearance Of Your Teeth After Breaking A Nail-Biting Habit
If you've been a habitual nail biter, chances are you've done some damage to your teeth. Teeth can be chipped and seriously damaged by nail biting, but even minor damage can affect the appearance of your teeth. If you've already broken the habit and want to restore your teeth to the way they looked before, consider these cosmetic dentistry methods to get the job done.
Shaping and Bonding
If you're lucky, habitually biting your nails hasn't chipped or broken your teeth or caused your teeth to become crooked. However, regular nail biting can wear down the biting surface of your teeth, resulting in a jagged, rough, uneven appearance.
This problem is very easily fixed with a dentist's help, thankfully. If your teeth are merely uneven due to nail biting, your dentist can perform a procedure called enamel shaping to restore their original appearance. Enamel shaping is a quick and painless procedure that gently files down the enamel to make your teeth look smooth and even. This filing process never goes near the nerves in your teeth, so you shouldn't experience any sensitivity afterwards.
If your teeth have been more seriously affected by nail biting, your dentist can instead apply resin to the surface of your tooth, topping off the damaged enamel and giving it an even appearance.
Veneers and Crowns
Unfortunately, nail biting can cause more serious damage. If your tooth is chipped or broken, resin may not be enough to restore the appearance of your teeth. However, your dentist can still give you a healthy-looking smile by applying veneers to the front of your affected teeth. Veneers can also make your teeth look straight and perfectly aligned in case biting your nails has made your teeth crooked or overlap one another.
If your teeth are seriously chipped or broken, it may be necessary to repair your teeth with crowns. If the chip or break goes beyond the protective enamel layer of your tooth, the root and pulp of your tooth could be exposed to bacteria and acids in food. Dental crowns not only make your teeth look normal again, like veneers, but they safely seal the tooth to protect it from harm.
Biting your nails is a difficult habit to break, so you should feel proud that you're no longer causing damage to your teeth. The final step is to contact a dentist to erase any signs that you ever bit your nails in the first place. Contact a company like Larsen-Haslem Dental to get started.
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