Can't stop chewing ice? What it might reveal about your health — and why it's so bad for your teeth.

When ice is swirling around the bottom of your cup, it can be tempting — and satisfying — to crunch your way through it. But there’s a difference between munching on the odd cube here and there and having an actual ice-chewing habit.

Chewing on ice can be a serious problem for your teeth, and doctors say it can also signal underlying physical and mental health issues. Here’s what health care providers want you to keep in mind when it comes to chewing ice — plus why everyone should think twice before crunching on the cold stuff.

Why do people chew ice?

It depends. Chewing ice can simply be one of those things you do because it’s there. But regularly craving and chewing ice is usually a sign that something is off with your health.

“Craving ice is a form of pica, or the taking in of non-nutritive food sources,” Dr. Sarah Boutwell, division director of the Division of General Internal Medicine at George Washington University Medical Faculty Associates, tells Yahoo Life. “Other examples of pica can include eating dirt, starch or clay.” When someone with pica eats ice, it’s called pagophagia, Tegan Mansouri, nutrition science program director in the Department of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences at the University at Buffalo, tells Yahoo Life.

It’s not clear how many people have pagophagia, but one case report calls it a “common but rarely reported” condition.

The craving for eating ice can be a sign of a specific type of anemia caused by iron deficiency, although Boutwell says it’s not clear why this happens. “There seems to be a dopamine release related to the pica that keeps the patients consuming ice,” she says. In other words, feel-good hormones are released in some people when they eat ice, keeping them coming back for more.

Chewing ice could also be a compulsive action, or something that’s self-soothing for the person eating the ice, Thea Gallagher, a clinical associate professor at NYU Langone Health and co-host of the Mind in View podcast, tells Yahoo Life. It can even be a sign of an eating disorder if you’re using ice as a replacement for foods with calories. “It’s really important to explore the function of the chewing,” Gallagher says.

How chewing ice affects your teeth

Chewing ice seems harmless, but dentists generally agree that the habit is really bad for your teeth.

“Ice is a very hard substance," Mark Wolff, dean of the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine, tells Yahoo Life. He compares chewing ice to trying to bite through a piece of bone.

“Chewing on ice runs the risk of initiating small, and sometimes larger, fractures of the teeth,” Wolff says. Having fillings in your teeth also increases the risk of a fracture when you chew on ice, he adds.

You can even mess up your temporomandibular joint (TMJ) by chewing ice. “Placing that type of significant and heavy pressure on the chewing joint can cause pain and even permanent damage,” Wolff says.

According to Wolff, there’s no “safe” way to chew ice from a dental perspective. “Teeth are not tools,” Wolff says. “Humans should not use their teeth to open bottles or bags, break ice or break bones.”

How to tell if your ice-chewing habit is harmful

Is your ice-chewing habit harmless or harmful? There are a few factors to consider. “We want to look at the frequency and intensity, along with how you would feel if you were unable to engage in that behavior,” Gallagher says. If it feels like chewing ice is interfering with your daily life and functioning, or if you spend time thinking about when you’ll be able to chew ice again, Gallagher says that’s a sign that you need to get things checked out.

“Pica is typically diagnosed after a month of craving non-food substances, such as ice,” Mansouri says. “However, if you find yourself frequently craving ice in addition to symptoms such as fatigue, difficulty concentrating, cold hands and feet, shortness of breath upon exertion or frequent headaches, it would be a good idea to talk to your doctor right away.”

Boutwell stresses that you shouldn’t panic if you like to chew on ice that happens to be lingering in your glass here and there. “Occasionally chewing ice is not a problem and is completely normal,” she says. But Boutwell says that a daily ice-chewing habit is another thing altogether.

If you’re concerned about your ice cravings or how often you chew ice, Boutwell recommends seeing a primary care physician. They can do blood tests to see if you have an iron deficiency and if so, what might be the cause. (This is usually treated with IV or oral iron supplements, Mansouri says.)

If your doctor determines that your ice-chewing habit is psychological, Gallagher says that cognitive behavioral therapy, which focuses on changing thought patterns and behaviors, can be helpful. “It can help you find healthier coping strategies if this is functioning as a stress response,” she says.

But if you believe that your ice-chewing habit is under control, doctors generally agree that you’re OK to have ice here and there. “An occasional cube is probably not harmful,” Wolff says.