Questions about Dental crowns

brook2jack

I have to say for certain proceedures eg veneers,fillings on front teeth , all porcelain crowns I always check if patient bites fingernails, tears off sellotape ,break off bits of cotton, opens beer bottles! etc with their teeth and warn them not to. No filling or crown etc ever is as strong as your own teeth and they have to be treated with respect.

Toothsmith

Ditto!

I always check fingernails too! If it were just for cosmetic purposes, I would refuse to do veneers until someone came in with nice nails. (But I seldom do anything just for cosmetic purposes!)

Biting a fingernail puts an awful lot of pressure on a very small area of the edge of the tooth.

It's not really the crown's fault it broke - but on the other hand, the dentist should have given you a warning.

mandyh11

I'm very confused as to what to do. A bottom molar with the molar in front of it has broken and has a large filling. My dentist has advised a crown (£195 nhs or £350 private)or bridge (1250!!!).
I am considering just having the crown as the gap has been there for years and doesn't show. I can't decide whether to go private or nhs for the crown. Its so far back it can't beseen really so I'm tempted by nhs but are they inferior quality?
Any advice please? Been searching the net to no avail.

welshdent

If you do not mind having the gap then there is no apparent requirement for a bridge. your dentist is just correctly giving you options for treatment. A bridge in that area probably would not require any additonal preparation work as they are normally retained by a crown anyway so it was probably just offered for completeness. Regards materials. Yes an NHS crown will have cheaper materials than a private ones. Normally an NHS crown would be an all metal one. Normally an alloy of metals of which gold may be one of the mix. You can also get private gold crowns that have a higher gold content. As for clinical importance then its difficult to say to be honest. It will still do the job. Privately you can have tooth coloured aesthetic crowns. They may be porcelain bonded on to metal or all ceramic. They all have their own advantages and disadvantages. Its up to you to decide what you want in your mouth and if aesthetics are important to you.

mandyh11

Thanks so much for your quick reply welshdent. That settles my mind on the bridge now I just have to decide on the crown.

sewandsew

Well, got the crown fitted today. It does not fit, its too high (visibly, even). It is painful to bite down on it and as far as I can feel has a gap at the back at the gumline as well. The dentist told me it takes 6 weeks to feel right. Not sure I can handle it until then.
The last crown I had on this tooth, which I know it wasnt a post one, felt very different, almost normal.
There is a hard lump in my gum at the back of the site of the crown which must be to do with the crown as it wasnt there before I had the preparation. Is this the post? It is painful to touch this lump.

Toothsmith

They can often feel odd, particulaly if you've got used to the gap, but it should feel OK within a few days at the most.

Go back if it still feels odd for much longer than that.

northernstar5

My NHS dentist has just taken an xray of a tooth which has a hairline crack. He says it may need a crown. I don't really know anything about crowns, what they are or what their purpose is. Advice and info please!

Also my husband needs to have a back tooth out. The dentist said he can have a plate on the NHS (£198). If he has a bridge or anything else he'll need to go elsewhere privately. The online info re nhs dental costs say you can have a bridge for £198. Any idea why my hubby hasn't been given this option?

Thanks

brook2jack

With a cracked tooth every time you bite stress pushes the two halves of the tooth apart and the crack may get bigger. With a crown you have an injection , the tooth is drilled into a peg shape, an impression (print) of the tooth is made and sent to a lab and a temporary crown is cemented over the top of the tooth holding the tooth together. A week or more later you come back the temporary crown is removed and a permanent crown cemented in with stronger glue. Now when you bite down the tooth is held together and the crack cannot get bigger. Crowns can be metal, porcelain, or other materials depending on where it is and whether it is NHS or private.


On the NHS you just have to provide treatment that secures oral health. For missing back teeth that may be just leaving a gap (may do no harm at all) or providing a denture. It is difficult to see the circumstances which will justify a bridge for back teeth on the NHS.

DonnaP

I have had an ongoing problem with pain on chewing in a premolar tooth. My previous NHS dentist advised a root canal and then a crown (there was no infection on the xray).

Due to other ongoing issues at that dental practice, I moved back to my previous private dentist who initially recommended the very old filling in that tooth be removed and replaced. He also filed a top tooth to change the bite slightly. This reduced the pain when chewing but didn't eliminate it.

He then recommended a crown which cost me £300. The pain has now reduced even more but 4 months down the line it still has not been eliminated.

I need to go back and see him so I am still within the 6 months of treatment, but I am concerned as he initially said that if the crown didn't work, he would have to drill through the crown and perform a root canal. I am concerned about this for a number of reasons. Will the look of the filled crown be compromised (will it be filled with a black filling, which will look awful?) Will the crown withstand drilling? How much is this going to cost and will it be done for free being as the crown he recommended hasn't worked and its still within the 6 months of being fitted?

I would love any advice before I go back.

Thank you in advance

Donna