Dental crowns may be prescribed for different reasons: it could be given to a patient to replace a tooth that was lost; it could be given to a patient to resolve an aesthetic issue regarding tooth shade, color, shape and form. It alters the patient’s smile in so many ways, and inasmuch as patients and dentists would like to say that dental crowns can last a lifetime, they sometimes do not. Sometimes, the dental crowns that you received and spent money for will fail and will have to be replaced.
Why should your replace old dental crowns?
– Dental crowns may be replaced when a leak is present. There should be a perfect seal when the crown is fitted onto the tooth so that food and bacteria does not seep into the teeth to infect it and compromise its health. A tooth that is covered by a crown can still develop tooth decay and may be infected by gum disease. A tooth is more susceptible to gum disease and dental caries when there is a leak with the dental crowns.
– Dental crowns that have their porcelain or ceramic components chipped or fractured should be replaced; otherwise you just have a metal crown which is not aesthetic at all. This is most especially important if your dental crowns are found on the anterior teeth. The whole point of having a prosthesis is so that you can replace a tooth, and when the dental crowns no longer serve that purpose, it has to be replaced.
– When the health of the abutment or supporting teeth is compromised, either requiring a root canal because of a dental infection or is no longer stable because of a progressive gum disease, the existing crowns will have to be destroyed or removed, so that the tooth can receive appropriate treatment (root canal, tooth extraction, root planning). After the treatment, the old dental crowns are to be replaced with a new one.
– Sometimes, a patient may want to replace his existing dental crowns so that he can upgrade the dental crowns that he currently has, to a better one. The most simple dental crowns make use of less precious metals and you can upgrade your existing dental crowns to the ones with tilite metal, zirconium and so forth. If you are not happy with your crowns and you believe that some improvement can be given to you, you can ask your dentist for new crowns. Another upgrade you can consider is if you have a different material of crown, like if you have plastic or ceramic and you wish to upgrade to porcelain.
– When the initial design of your dental bridges and crowns is not good enough, either the abutment support is enough (so more teeth will have to be added) or the distribution of load is not sufficient enough to support the prosthesis, the entire thing will have to be reconsidered and a replacement may be in order.
The replacement of old dental crowns is more complicated than when they are being fabricated for the first time. Removing the cemented crowns from the tooth or teeth is not done simply. Sometimes is can be removed in one-piece, but at times it will have to be drilled out of the mouth and it is quite tasking for both the dentist and the patient. It is more time consuming and it may even be more “painful” in the sense, but you should just visualize the result in the end.