When I bite down on hard foods, it hurts. What is that?
A. Biting down on hard foods means that there is inflammation at the top of the root, just like walking with a stone in your shoe would cause your foot to hurt. If it is due to biting too hard on the tooth, such as would be the case with a new filling that is too high, or tooth clenching or grinding, fixing the bite will help. If it is due to an infection in the tooth, a root canal is probably needed. Q. My teeth have chips in the front. What causes that? A. Chips in teeth are caused by mechanical trauma such as a blow to the tooth or, more commonly, tooth grinding. You can see if the chipping is due to tooth grinding by putting your top and bottom teeth together edge to edge, and seeing if the chips or worn spots on the top and bottom teeth line up.
