- The prognosis for a cracked tooth is always going to be questionable (Rivera & Walton 2008).
- The prognosis is always better if the crack does not extend to the pulp chamber floor (Turp & Gobetti 1996; Sim et al. 2016).
- Vital is better than necrotic (Turp & Gobetti 1996).
- The quality of the restoration and whether a full coverage crown may cover the crack and other defects are considerations (Rivera & Walton 2008), as is whether an abscess or radiographic rarefaction is present prior to treatment.
- These two factors would lower the prognosis of the tooth in question (Berman & Kuttler 2010).
- One study found that cracked teeth had a two-year survival rate of 85.5% (Tan et al. 2006).
- Another study found that after five years, the survival rate of root-filled cracked teeth was 92%, with the odds of extraction increasing if the cracks were in the root (Sim et al. 2016).
- Finally, a recent study from Korea showed a 90%, two-year survival rate for a cracked tooth, probing depths greater than 6 mm being a signifi- cant factor in the prognosis (Kang et al. 2016).