Cracked tooth syndrome is the diagnosis patients have chased across three dentists before they reach me. The pain is real, intermittent, and maddeningly hard to localise.
It hides because it doesn't behave like decay or a straightforward pulpitis. The cracks are often invisible on radiographs, and the symptoms come and go with exactly the foods a patient forgets to mention.
Here are the tests that reliably expose it — and why "sharp pain on release of biting" is the phrase that should make every clinician slow down.