We have reached the end of July and the heat shows no sign of letting up in the Axarquía. On these scorching days, nothing is more tempting than an ice-cold drink at a beach bar in Torre del Mar. However, once the soft drink or iced coffee is finished, many patients fall into an unconscious habit that seems harmless but is extremely destructive for their mouth: chewing ice, crunching the cubes left in the glass.
At Acosta Cubero Dental Clinic, located in Torre del Mar, at this time of year we often see people with sharp pain or unexpected breakages caused by exactly this. Today we want to explain, from a purely clinical point of view, how the impact of ice affects the structure of your teeth and why you should give up this habit today. Protect your enamel from thermal and mechanical shock! 🛡
A head-on collision: hardness against rigidity 🤔
Tooth enamel is the hardest and most mineralised tissue in the human body, designed to grind food for decades. However, it has a weak spot: it is a rigid, crystalline structure, which means it has no flexibility against sharp impacts with materials of similar hardness.
When you bite into an ice cube, a doubly harmful process takes place in the tooth:
- Mechanical stress: you are pressing two extremely hard surfaces together with the full force of your jaw. If the ice doesn’t break straight away, the inner structure of the tooth absorbs all the force of the impact.
- Thermal shock: the sudden change in temperature (from the warmth of your mouth to the extreme cold of the ice) makes the enamel contract rapidly, creating internal tension in the tooth.
This repeated overload doesn’t usually break the tooth on day one, but it gradually creates microcracks, invisible to the naked eye, that weaken the tooth little by little.
The consequences of chewing ice: from invisible crack to complete fracture ⚠️
When a tooth is weakened by the habit of chewing ice (or by eating very hard foods such as roasted corn snacks, hard nougat or meat bones at barbecues), the patient enters a risk zone that usually shows up in one of three ways at our clinic in Torre del Mar:
- Extreme sensitivity to cold: the microcracks break the enamel seal, allowing extreme temperatures to pass straight through to the tiny pores of the dentine and the nerve, causing an unbearable jolt of pain.
- The tooth “breaks” while eating something soft: it is the classic case of the patient who tells us: “Doctor, I broke a molar chewing a piece of bread”. The bread didn’t break the tooth; it was already cracked inside from all the ice before, and that bite of bread was simply the final trigger.
- Serious vertical fractures: if the crack spreads and splits the root of the tooth in half below the gum, the tooth can no longer be restored or saved, and it has to be extracted and later replaced with a dental implant.
How do we detect and repair the damage at Acosta Cubero Clinic? ⚙
The key to conservative dentistry is to step in before the tooth suffers a catastrophic break. At our practice in Vélez-Málaga we have the right technology to diagnose these hidden cracks:
- Diagnosis with magnification and digital radiography: we examine your teeth under specific lights and filters to find early fracture lines that are not yet causing symptoms but are already damaging the structure.
- Preventive sealing or reconstruction: if the crack is superficial, we can seal it or carry out a small reconstruction with high-strength aesthetic composites to restore the tooth’s strength and get rid of tooth sensitivity to cold.
- Protection against wear: many patients who chew ice compulsively also suffer from bruxism (clenching their teeth due to stress). In these cases, we make custom night guards to relax the muscles and protect the teeth from any future fracture.
Enjoy the summer and protect your smile in the Axarquía! 😊
Cooling your drinks with ice is perfect for beating the heat, but remember: ice is for chilling, not for chewing. If you need to calm your nerves or cool down, go for slushies or water-based ice lollies that don’t require any force from your jaw.
If you feel a sharp pain when biting or suspect you have cracked a tooth after biting on something hard, get in touch with Acosta Cubero Dental Clinic in Torre del Mar (Vélez-Málaga). We will check your teeth in good time so you can keep enjoying your holidays without pain or nasty surprises. Look after your teeth, they are for life! ✨
