crack on my tooth??

Question

i recently noticed a vertical line going half way up on my front upper tooth...... seems like a crack.... does any one know if it can be fixed and with what??or what might have caused it???.. could it have been like a car's windshield, that it cracks and keeps going?? thanks

Answer 1

Enamel is the hardest substance in your body. But under stress it will get little cracks in it. These are called Craze lines. They do not result in any pain, and when a dentist passes his explorer over them. you do not feel a crack on the outside of the tooth. Craze lines are not something to be worried about. If it bothers you from an aesthetic point of view, the only thing that can be done is to drill it out and put a filling in, or put a veneer over the surface of the tooth. This is usually not necessary for most people.
Different from this is an actual crack or fracture of the tooth. These will cause pain when pressure is applied to the tooth, since the crack opens and closes, or when cold hits the tooth causing the tooth to contract slightly which will bother a cracked tooth. A dentist can feel the crack with an explorer.
Yes, cracks can propagate down the entire length of a tooth just like a crack in a windshield.

For ore info, I found this site pretty good;
http://www.endodovgan.com/Endoinfo_Cracked_Fractured.htm