Good as Gold?

A patient came in last week and she had just broken tooth #5 ( her first premolar) and she needed to do something because it looked silly when she smiled.
broken buccal cusp #5 


 She confessed that the week before she had been eating candy and one of her back gold crowns had come out. She placed it in tissue paper but she thinks she might have thrown it out. I examined her back tooth and although it looked black, there was no decay.

After prepping #5 for a temporary crown I asked her to look around at home for her crown to see if she had dropped it in a trash can at home and she said she would. She had to come back for me to take an impression for #5 and I said I would like an opportunity to see if her old back gold crown still fit and possibly I could recement it.

Upper last molar 28 year old gold crown


Today was one week later and she brought back her old gold crown and it still seemed to fit. She asked me when I had made it and I looked back at her chart and it was 28 years old. I took an x-ray and her crown seemed to fit well and I was able to recement it. I suggested she should  go easy on eating candy and such in the future. I was very proud that this crown was still serviceable after all the time in her mouth and that it was a good day for dentistry!




from Ask Dr. Spindel - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/2018/12/good-as-gold.html - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/

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