Is this a crack or a craze line? (picture)

[Soma]

I'm sorry for posting two posts so close together. Due to my other dental issue I'm examining my teeth with my little dental mirror well over 10 times a day. I noticed this line in a molar last night. It is on the same side as my gum discomfort, though the main discomfort is far back in the wisdom tooth and molar and jaw/cheek. This molar is the neighbor to them. My whole mouth feels out of whack right now so I can't tell where any pain is coming from at this point. I can't remember if there is a white filling that may be forming this line or not. The line seems to wrap from one side of the tooth to the other, but the it doesn't go very high up on the sides. If that makes any sense. I'm not sure if you can tell a crack from a craze line just by looking. I tried biting on a q-tip and tapping and pushing on it with my tooth brush it doesn't seem to be any more or less sensative to anything...but still, I'm worried..as usual as it looks like a crack to me.

 

[drm]

I think what you're seeing is the distolingual groove of the tooth. It is a normal feature of upper molar teeth. In some people it is really pronounced and in others it is relatively small.



There is a suspicious looking area in that groove (where I circled it). It looks like you may have a cavity starting there. Hard to say with any certainty from a picture but I'd definitely have your dentist take a look.

 

[Soma]

Thank you so much drm.

I have an appointment with an endo this coming week for my other issues, I'll be sure to have him look at the spot you circled. I did just have my teeth cleaned by my dentist about 2 months ago, x-rays taken, he said everything looked good, but he is the most conservative dentist I've ever had, so it could very well be a cavity forming.

thank you again.