A Purim Candy Broke My Molar in Half

Quick answer: Not every broken tooth can be saved. When the fracture runs below the bone, extraction is the honest answer, and what matters next is protecting the space so the neighbouring teeth do not drift into it.

The call

Yossi, 51, from RBS Gimmel, was doing the rounds of mishloach manot when he bit into one of those glassy boiled sweets that turn up in every basket. He heard the crack, felt no pain at all, and carried on. Two days later, chewing became uncomfortable and he messaged us.

What we found

The lower left second molar had split cleanly down the middle, front to back. When we tested each half separately with a bite stick, both moved independently — the classic sign of a split tooth as opposed to a crack that has not yet separated.

The x-ray and the periodontal probing told the rest of the story. The fracture line ran down the root and below the level of the bone. The tooth had been root treated eleven years earlier and never crowned, which is the single most common reason a back tooth ends up like this. A root-filled molar has no nerve to warn you, is more brittle, and is often hollowed out by the access cavity. Left without a crown, it is a tooth waiting for the right piece of food.

I told Yossi plainly that it was not restorable. There is a temptation to try heroics on a split molar; the result is usually months of discomfort, a lot of money, and an extraction anyway.

What we did

We removed the tooth the same day, in two halves, which is far kinder to the bone than trying to lever out a split tooth whole. We cleaned the socket thoroughly, since a long-standing fracture usually has some infection tracking along it, and placed a bone graft to preserve the ridge height for a future implant.

He went home with written aftercare and my mobile number for that night. We reviewed him at one week and at two months.

The outcome

The socket healed uneventfully. Six months later he had an implant placed, and the crown followed four months after that. The graft mattered — without it, the ridge would have shrunk over that first summer and the implant would have needed a second surgical stage.

He also had two other root-treated molars without crowns. Both are now crowned. That is the real lesson of this case.

What to do if this happens to you

1. Do not test it repeatedly. Biting to see if it still hurts drives the halves apart.
2. Keep it clean and rinse with warm salt water after meals.
3. Be seen quickly, even without pain. A split tooth traps bacteria in the fracture line.
4. Ask directly whether it is restorable, and ask what the fracture looks like on the x-ray.
5. Discuss the space before the extraction, not afterwards. Implant, bridge or accepting the gap are all reasonable, but the decision affects how the socket is treated on the day.
6. Get your other root-treated back teeth crowned. This is preventable.

Broken a tooth in RBS Gimmel? Ramat Beit Shemesh Urgent Dental Care keeps emergency slots free every day. 055-985-8845 · WhatsApp https://wa.me/972559858845 · Harav Kook 28/1, Beit Shemesh.

Based on real cases treated at the clinic. Names have been changed.