If you find yourself constantly raiding the freezer for ice to chew it could be a bizarre symptom of underlying anaemia. When your blood energy levels are running on empty for some reason (which isn’t fully understood) it can trigger these ice nibbling spells, although it has been postulated that the ice may give the brain a power boost.
Pica is a condition where people eat the sorts of things not typically found on restaurant menus, like clay, dirt, paper or raw rice. The term was coined after the Latin word for magpie, which is Picave, since this bird is famed for its odd dining activities. Ice gorging is a branch of pica known as pagophagia.
You would be forgiven for imagining that eating lots of ice wouldn’t really cause that much harm. I mean, it’s only frozen water. But, astoundingly, chronic binging on the stuff can at times trigger a seizure by upsetting the balance of electrolytes in the body. And if you crunch down often enough, the force needed to pulverize these frosty cubes is enough to initiate microcracks in our teeth.
Teeth are engineered to take massive forces, repeatedly, over decades and it’s all down to their supercool, microscopic crystalline structure. The hexagonal hydroxyapatite crystals make enamel the hardest substance in the human body. The bite force needed to generate a crack can approach the 1kN mark in humans.
Interestingly, practically everyone has cracks in their teeth and most times nothing happens. But everything has its breaking point and a daily ice-chewing habit has the potential to rip apart a tooth smoother than a lumberjack splitting a log in two.
Even a perfect virgin tooth that hasn’t been damaged in any way by decay can crack apart in a heartbeat, right down the middle through the nerve canal giving a severe electric jolt-type pain which sears through your jawbone.
Unfortunately, when a tooth splits lengthways it often means that the tooth is beyond saving and it needs to be removed. A heavy grinding or persistent clenching habit can also produce similar overloading forces to ice chewing and teeth can end up breaking.
To protect the teeth from cracks opening up try avoiding abnormally hard foods and you may want to discuss a bite guard with your dentist to protect them further.
