Root canal questions

Spoonie_Turtle

Undervalued said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

Undervalued said:
A NHS crown is Band 3 but would generally be shiny metal (unless at the front). A tooth coloured porcelain crown would be private only unless near the front of the mouth.

Really? Mine (most definitely NHS) are colour-matched crowns, one mid-molar from this year and one back molar from ~15 yrs ago. The filling in between having the root canal and having the crown was also white this time (I didn't notice for the first one).

Well I think you were lucky then! That was not my experience and is not the normal NHS offering as explained by the dentists that post here regularly. 
Metal crowns are stronger and do not involve removing as much of the original tooth (but obviously don't look as nice)! The stated NHS policy is to get you dentally fit as cost effectively as possible with little regard to the cosmetic aspects. Although they do, as I understand it, provide tooth coloured crowns if they are highly visible.

My crowns are metal underneath, but tooth coloured on top; I don't know what exactly the top is made of. The recent one had to be drilled down quite a bit to fit properly so a small amount of the metal shows through in the middle of the 'tooth'.

Toothsmith

Spoonie_Turtle said:

Undervalued said:
A NHS crown is Band 3 but would generally be shiny metal (unless at the front). A tooth coloured porcelain crown would be private only unless near the front of the mouth.

Really? Mine (most definitely NHS) are colour-matched crowns, one mid-molar from this year and one back molar from ~15 yrs ago. The filling in between having the root canal and having the crown was also white this time (I didn't notice for the first one).

15 yrs ago was pre the 2006 NHS dental contract - and a whole distant planet away! 

The filling in between root filling and crowning was, in all probability a semi- permanent glass ionomer material. It is white in colour, but nowhere near as time consuming to put in properly. Ideal though for the in-between stage after root filling the tooth & crowning.