Bicycle Mechanics - 1/2 broken chainring tooth

My inside chainring has a half broken tooth on it. It almost looks as if it was a defect from the factory that never got caught, but it hasnt created any problems as of yet. My question is to you wrenches out there. Will this effect the wear on the chain or cause the teeth next to it to wear faster? Is it necessary to replace the ring or let it wear out and do the middle and inner at the same time? I rarely use the outer. Thanks in advance for any input.

My inside chainring has a half broken tooth on it. It almost looks as if it was a defect from the factory that never got caught, but it hasnt created any problems as of yet. My question is to you wrenches out there. Will this effect the wear on the chain or cause the teeth next to it to wear faster? Is it necessary to replace the ring or let it wear out and do the middle and inner at the same time? I rarely use the outer. Thanks in advance for any input.

My bet is that it's neither broken nor a factory defect. You didn't say what kind of crankset, but many modern cranksets, and cassettes too, have a few oddly shaped teeth whose purpose is to improve shifting quality. Look exactly 180 degrees from the "half broken" tooth that you mentioned and see if you can find another exactly like it.

Thanks for the response Retro. Yes, there is another tooth 180 degrees that is the same. Its behind the crank arm, so I never noticed it. They are strong arm 2 cranks on a specialized bike. Outer ring is truvativ trushift, so I would assume the steel inners are truvativ as well. I just didnt want to replace them if I didnt have to. They arent that old. I feel stupid now, but thanks for teaching me something new.