Spontaneous splitting of tooth after falling out

[dopeysgem]

My son lost one of his upper molars at 7AM. I placed it on the ledge of my kitchen counter. About eight hours later I happened to see the tooth spontaneously split apart and each half shot across the counter in opposite directions.

Nothing and no one touched the tooth. It just suddenly split and the halves ricocheted.

Can someone please the science behind what happened? Did the tooth become too dry causing the split? Most bizarre experience ever!

 

[Dental cure and care]

It is plausible that your son’s molar split due to a combination of dehydration leading to brittleness and possibly thermal effects causing internal stresses within the tooth structure. The sudden nature of this event aligns with how brittle materials behave under stress; they can fail catastrophically without warning when their structural integrity is compromised.