Urgent Care :: Broken/chipped beak

[Sapphire]

While cleaning Simon's tank today we noticed that he had a chipped beak. We are a bit concerned about this and are wondering if this is normal and if we should be concerned. I haven't been able to find anything on beak care in my literature at home and I am moderately concerned about this developement.

Information:
Tank
70 gallons (50 gallon water volume)
81 F water temp
85 F backing temp
Water: 6.8 pH, ammonia 0 ppm, nitrite 0 ppm, nitrate 0.5 ppm
Substrate: 1-2" river stones
Decorations: lava rock and driftwood
Filtration: AC 70 powerhead with filtration attachment and Fluval 104
Water changes: 70% each week

Simon has a 2 hour forced basking period each night under a UVB lamp (to help with sheading his scutes), but basks on his own as well.

Diet
constant access to:
Duck weed
water sprite

Nightly feedings:
Romain lettuce
Zoomed Aquatic Turtle Food Maintenance Formula:
http://zoomed.com/db/products/EntryDeta ... SearchID=5
Crude Protein (Min) 25.0%,Crude Fat (Min) 5.0%,Crude Fiber (Max) 8.0%,Moisture (Max) 11.0%,Ash (Max) 10.0%,Phosphorus (Min) 1.0%

Photo of the damage:

[Ranger The Red Ear Slider]

The chip looks to be really clean and not bad. There's not much a vet can do unless it gets swollen or infected. Antibiotics would be needed then. Just keep an eye out at it any swelling bleeding or infection you might need to take him in

[steve]

Well, a vet could smooth it out, though it does look minor. Any idea how it happened?

[Sapphire]

We are keeping a close eye on it just incase it does go bad, but it doesn't seem to be bothering him. He is still eating normally, I am just concerned that he might be hindered in the future because of it.

We are not certain how he did it. But he does like to dig around in the rocks and shove his head into them, so perhaps he banged it that way and broke a piece off.

[steve]

Their beak is constantly growing, so it shouldn't be a problem. They are pretty tough to chip, so I'll keep a close on it and his behavior.

[Ertle's mom]

This happened to my trutle when she was around 3. Her bottom jaw got chipped bad, buy biting a brick. I think they do this to keep the size down.
anyway it grew back in 6 months or so. she ate just fine. no worries.