If you crack a tooth on food or a product, two clocks start at once: a clinical clock measured in minutes, and an evidence clock measured in weeks. The clinical clock decides how much of the tooth can be saved and how comfortable you are tonight. The evidence clock decides whether anyone can later connect the damage to the meal or the item. Deal with the tooth first. Then keep the object, the packaging and the receipt.
Key takeaways
- See a dentist the same day if you can, because a same-day record is what ties a fracture to a specific meal.
- Keep the object, the packaging and the receipt, and photograph the object next to something for scale before it goes anywhere.
- The ACCC states that consumer guarantees are automatic and that a business cannot refuse to help you by telling you to contact the manufacturer.
- The Australian Consumer Law has two separate routes: consumer guarantees against the seller, and safety defect liability against the manufacturer or importer.
- In NSW, retail food complaints other than butchers go to the local council, while butchers, allergens and multi-household food poisoning go to the NSW Food Authority.
- The NSW Food Authority says plainly that it cannot act for you on reimbursement, compensation or damages, and the ACCC says it does not resolve individual disputes.
Get seen straight away if any of these apply
Most cracked teeth are uncomfortable rather than dangerous, but some situations need urgent attention:
- bleeding that will not stop, or a cut in the mouth that gapes open;
- a tooth that is loose, pushed out of line, or that stops your teeth meeting properly;
- severe or throbbing pain, especially pain that keeps you awake;
- facial swelling, fever, or swelling that is closing your eye or spreading under the jaw;
- a sharp fragment cutting your tongue or cheek;
- trouble breathing or swallowing, or a suspicion you have swallowed or inhaled a piece of tooth or a foreign object, in which case go to a hospital emergency department.
Facial swelling with fever is not a "wait and see" situation. If a dental practice cannot see you, a hospital emergency department can.
The clinical clock: the first day
Rinse gently with warm water. Keep any fragment of tooth in milk or sterile saline in case it can be bonded back. Avoid chewing on that side, avoid very hot and cold foods, and use paracetamol as directed. If a sharp edge is cutting your tongue, sugar-free chewing gum or orthodontic wax pressed over it is a reasonable temporary measure. Our guide to what to do in a dental emergency covers the first phone call.
Not every cracked tooth looks dramatic. A crack that runs through a cusp can produce a sharp pain on releasing a bite and almost nothing on the radiograph, which is why it has its own name. Our article on cracked tooth syndrome explains how it is diagnosed, and our piece on craze lines versus a true crack covers the very common situation where the lines you can see are not the problem. If the tooth broke on something hard rather than something foreign, our article on chipped teeth from chewing ice is a useful companion.
The outlook for a cracked tooth is genuinely uncertain at the first visit. Depending on where the crack runs, the tooth may need a filling, a cusp coverage restoration, a crown, root canal treatment or removal.
The evidence clock: what to keep and how
This is the section that matters most, and it is the one competitor pages skip entirely.
Keep the object
Do not throw it out, do not hand it to a staff member without recording it, and do not wash it. If the object came out of your mouth, put it somewhere safe and dry in a labelled bag or container.
Photograph it before it goes anywhere
Photograph the object next to a coin or a ruler so its size is obvious. Photograph it in the food if you have not yet removed it. Take a photograph of the plate, the table, the venue and the packaging. If you later hand the object to a regulator, you will not get it back. The NSW Food Authority states that samples are not returned and may be destroyed in testing, so the photographs may be the only record of the object that stays with you.
Keep the packaging and the receipt
The NSW Food Authority asks you to keep any leftover food, packaging and receipts. The packaging carries the product name, size, batch code and date, which is what allows anyone to trace the item. The receipt establishes where and when you bought it. If you paid by card and have no paper receipt, take a screenshot of the transaction.
Store the sample the right way
The NSW Food Authority gives specific instructions. Hold a food sample for up to 10 business days. For a complaint that does not involve food poisoning, keep the sample in a plastic bag in the freezer, provided freezing will not degrade it. For suspected food poisoning, keep it in a plastic bag in the fridge and do not freeze it. If nobody has contacted you within 10 days, investigators do not need it.
Get the fracture recorded in writing on the day
A same-day clinical note, intra-oral photographs and a radiograph establish which tooth fractured, how badly, and when. The ACCC's compensation test asks whether the loss was caused by the failure to meet a guarantee and whether it was reasonably foreseeable. A cracked cusp first diagnosed three months later, with no contemporaneous record, is very difficult to tie to a specific meal. This is not about building a case. It is simply that a dated record exists or it does not.
The consumer guarantee route: the business that sold it to you
The ACCC states that a product sold to a consumer must be of acceptable quality, which means it is safe, durable and free from defects, has acceptable appearance and finish, and does everything similar products are commonly used for. These are the consumer guarantees in the Australian Consumer Law, which is Schedule 2 to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth). The ACCC says the guarantees are automatic and cannot be taken away, that a "no refunds" sign or a disclaimer does not remove them, and that misleading a consumer about these rights is itself unlawful.
Your first step is the business that sold you the product. The ACCC puts it plainly: the business cannot refuse to help you by telling you to contact the manufacturer.
On compensation, the ACCC states that if the problem causes other loss or damage, a consumer has a right to compensation in addition to a repair, replacement or refund. The business must pay for loss caused by the failure to meet a guarantee that was reasonably foreseeable, and compensation should put the consumer back in the position they would have been in. The ACCC also says it is misleading and against the law for a business to claim it is not responsible for foreseeable losses, though businesses do not have to pay for damage unrelated to the product.
What the ACCC will not do is worth knowing before you spend an afternoon on the phone. The ACCC states that it does not give legal advice and does not resolve individual disputes about whether a guarantee was met or what remedy applies. It uses reports to inform education and enforcement.
The safety defect route: the manufacturer or importer
The Australian Consumer Law also has a separate liability regime for goods with a safety defect, which sits in Part 3-5 and applies to manufacturers and importers. Under section 9(1), goods have a safety defect if they do not provide the level of safety that persons are generally entitled to expect. That is an objective community-expectations test, and section 9(2) lists the circumstances that are relevant, including the manner and purposes for which the goods were marketed, the packaging including marks, instructions and warnings, the use to which the goods are reasonably expected to be put, and the time at which they were supplied.
Two features of this route surprise people. First, you do not have to have bought the product yourself, and you do not have to be a "consumer" as defined. Second, a restaurant can be a manufacturer. The Jones Day white paper "Product Liability in Australia", published in August 2021, notes that service providers such as restaurants which produce or assemble food for customers may be considered manufacturers within the meaning of the ACL, citing Samaan bht Samaan v Kentucky Fried Chicken Pty Ltd [2012] NSWSC 381. That case is cited here only for that narrow proposition. Jones Day also notes that repackaging and labelling can count as processing or assembling, following Glendale Chemical Products Ltd v ACCC.
There are defences. Under section 142 they include that the defect did not exist at the time of supply, that it existed only because of compliance with a mandatory standard, or that the state of scientific knowledge at the time meant it could not have been discovered. Section 9(3) makes clear that a newer, safer version does not prove the earlier one was defective. Warnings cut both ways: in Gill v Ethicon Sarl (No 5) the Federal Court accepted that a manufacturer giving appropriate warnings and not promising more safety than the product can deliver may not have supplied defective goods. Equally, a product with a safety defect is not made safe merely because instructions point out the hazard.
If the packaging does not tell you who made it, there is a concrete step. Under section 147, a supplier can be deemed to be the manufacturer where the injured person does not know the manufacturer's identity, has requested particulars, and has not been given them within 30 days. Jones Day's own comment is that such letters should not be ignored. Drafting that request is legal territory, so get legal information first.
The bone question, and why this article will not answer it
Search "broke a tooth on a bone" and you will find a confident rule: a bone in meat is "natural" so nothing can be done, while a stone or a piece of metal is "foreign" so it is automatically claimable. That distinction comes from American case law. Searching specifically for Australian authority for this article turned up none, in either direction. There is no verified Australian test.
What the law does point to is section 9(2). How the food was marketed is one of the listed circumstances, so words like "boneless", "fillet" or "pitted" are relevant to what a person is generally entitled to expect. That is the honest Australian framing. Anyone telling you the answer is settled is repeating a rule from another country.
Who to contact, and what each body can and cannot do
In NSW the regulator you need depends on the type of business and the type of problem. The NSW Food Authority states that for a retail business other than a butcher, or food poisoning affecting one household, you contact the local council where the business is located. For butchers, food allergens, food poisoning affecting more than one household, or other food safety and labelling issues, you contact the Food Authority, either through its online food complaint form or on 1300 552 406 between 8.30am and 5.30pm Monday to Friday. Council environmental health officers are authorised officers under the Food Act 2003 (NSW) and may inspect, audit and investigate without prior warning.
The Authority needs a description of the problem, the name and full street address of the business, and the product name, size and date on the package. It states that under NSW privacy legislation it does not disclose a complainant's personal details to the food business unless ordered by a court, and it notes that it is usually not able to provide details of the progress or outcome of an investigation. Packaging safety issues such as choking or burn hazards are not the Food Authority's remit and go to NSW Fair Trading.
| Who | What they cover | What to give them | What they can do | What they cannot do |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The business that sold you the food or product | Consumer guarantees under the Australian Consumer Law | Receipt or proof of purchase, the item, photographs, the date | Repair, replace, refund, and discuss compensation for foreseeable loss | Refuse to help by telling you to contact the manufacturer, which the ACCC says they cannot do |
| The manufacturer or importer | Goods supplied with a safety defect | The product, packaging, batch and date codes | Be liable directly for injury even if you did not buy from them | Stay anonymous if the packaging does not identify them and you ask the supplier in writing |
| Your local council | Retail food businesses other than butchers, and food poisoning affecting one household | Business name and full street address, product name and size, date on the package | Send an environmental health officer to inspect or investigate | Recover your dental costs |
| NSW Food Authority | Butchers, allergens, food poisoning affecting more than one household, labelling | The same details, plus dates, symptoms and timings if illness is involved | Log, prioritise and investigate, and refer to council or NSW Health | Act on your behalf for compensation, or give legal advice |
| NSW Fair Trading | Packaging safety issues such as choking or burn hazards, and product warranties | The packaging itself, photographs, purchase details | Handle issues outside the Food Authority's remit | Handle food safety itself |
| ACCC and Product Safety Australia | Product safety reports and mandatory injury reports from suppliers | Product details, what happened, injury description | Use reports for education, compliance and enforcement | Resolve your individual dispute or give legal advice |
| Your dentist | The clinical injury | Attend as soon as possible after the incident | Examine, photograph, radiograph and record the damage and its date | Determine liability or advise on a claim |
| LawAccess NSW | Free legal information for anyone with a legal problem in NSW | Your account of what happened and the records you have kept | Give legal information and refer you on | Replace advice about your own situation |
The two-day reporting obligation almost nobody knows about
Section 131 of the Australian Consumer Law requires a supplier of consumer goods to notify the responsible Commonwealth Minister, through the ACCC, within two days of becoming aware of a death, serious injury or serious illness that the supplier or another person considers was, or may have been, caused by the use or foreseeable misuse of the product. The obligation runs across the supply chain and failure to report can be an offence or attract a penalty. Reports are made at productsafety.gov.au. Whether a chipped tooth meets the threshold of a serious injury is not something this article can tell you, so do not assume a business must report yours.
What about deadlines
You will find specific limitation periods quoted for both routes. They are widely repeated in commentary but the statutory text behind them could not be verified for this article, so no number appears here. Time limits do exist, they differ depending on which route a claim takes, and the safest approach is to get legal information early rather than assume you have time. LawAccess NSW provides free legal information to anyone with a legal problem in NSW on 1300 888 529, and Legal Aid NSW provides free advice appointments to eligible people. If the injury happened while you were playing sport rather than eating, the position is different again, and our article on dental injury playing sport covers it. If your concern is about dental treatment you received rather than the product itself, our guide to making a complaint about dental treatment in NSW sets out that pathway.
Frequently asked questions
What should I do if I break a tooth on something in my food?
Stop eating, keep the object and any fragment of tooth, photograph the object next to something for scale, and keep the packaging and receipt. Tell the business at the time and ask for it to be recorded. See a dentist the same day if you can, so the fracture is examined, photographed and written down while the cause is fresh.
Can I claim dental costs from a restaurant in Australia?
You can raise it with the business under the consumer guarantees, and the ACCC states that a consumer has a right to compensation for loss that was caused by a failure to meet a guarantee and was reasonably foreseeable. Whether that applies in your case depends on the facts, and no dental practice can tell you the answer. Get legal information from LawAccess NSW.
Who do I report a foreign object in food to in NSW?
The NSW Food Authority accepts complaints about foreign matter in food, but the pathway depends on the business. For a retail business other than a butcher, contact the local council where the business is located. For butchers, allergens, labelling, or food poisoning affecting more than one household, contact the Food Authority on 1300 552 406 or through its online complaint form.
Should I keep the object I found in my food?
Yes. Keep it, and photograph it first. The NSW Food Authority asks you to keep leftover food, packaging and receipts, and to hold a sample for up to 10 business days, in the freezer for a general complaint or in the fridge for suspected food poisoning. It also states that samples are not returned and may be destroyed in testing, so photographs are your only lasting record.
Does the Australian Consumer Law cover food?
Yes. Food sold to a consumer must be of acceptable quality under the consumer guarantees, which the ACCC describes as including being safe and free from defects. Food can also fall under the separate safety defect provisions, and a restaurant that produces or assembles food may be treated as a manufacturer.
Can a restaurant refuse to pay because of a sign or a disclaimer?
The ACCC states that consumer guarantees are automatic and cannot be taken away, that a "no refunds" sign or a disclaimer does not remove them, and that misleading a consumer about these rights is itself unlawful. Whether any particular loss is recoverable is a separate question that turns on causation and foreseeability.
If you have cracked a tooth
The team at Lumi Dental in Melrose Park can examine, photograph and record a fracture on the day, and talk through the realistic options for that particular tooth. You can read about emergency dental care at Melrose Park, see what is currently available on our current offers page, or book online. We are open Monday to Saturday.
This article is general information only. It is not legal advice and it is not a substitute for an examination and individual dental advice. Whether a business or manufacturer is legally responsible depends entirely on the facts, and time limits apply. For free legal information in NSW, contact LawAccess NSW on 1300 888 529.
