Could Toostie Rolls be the most dangerous food for crowned teeth?


Sometimes when a patient has come in with a crown that has come off I have observed a dark brown sticky substance adhering to the inner surface of the restoration. It looks like "tootsie roll". When I have asked, my patients usually admit to having recently chewed some tootsie rolls or caramels.

The other day, Stan one of my long time patients came in and asked me to recement one of his crowns. He proudly explained that it had come out several days ago but he had placed it back on his tooth and it had stayed put.

I tried to remove it with GC forceps, but it wouldn't budge, so I asked him to wait until it came out again so I could re-cement it. A week or two went by and he called and said it had come loose but he had placed it back in because he didn't want to walk around without his crown. He came in , but once again I wasn't able to remove it. He asked what could he do to make it come out before his next visit, so I could re-cement it?I told him to find some stale tootsie rolls and chew them the day before his visit. I reasoned that they seem to be the perfect vehicle for loosening a crown. Indeed when he came in for his next visit, his crown had come out.... unfortunately not the one that he wanted to come loose! Instead a crown that opposed it had popped out. Upon observation, the crown still had its cement intact, but the tootsie rolls had broken the seal of the cement to the tooth.

I re-cemented his opposing crown and told him to wait until his "loose" crown came out again, but this time call me when it happens and I will get him in asap for it's re-cementation as long as he does't stick it back in by himself again. Probably this blog post should serve as a warning to others ... Eat tootsie rolls at your own risk!

from Ask Dr. Spindel - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/2017/12/could-toostie-rolls-be-most-dangerous.html - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Help! My Child is Terrified of the Dentist

Image
If you’re the parent of a young child, you know their brains are similar to sponges that soak up everything around them—especially in their first five years, which neuroscientists say is when they’ll do the most learning and developing in their entire life. At this formative time, your child may amaze you with what they notice: your facial expressions, the different tones of your voice, and your habits. If your habits include regular dental visits and an excellent oral hygiene routine, they’ll notice and want to emulate you. If you happen to feel anxious about your dental visits, or you groan when you’ve got to floss and brush, they may synchronize and feel your dread. This could lead to dental fears that stick with them for years—potentially a lifetime! Kids Can Be Courageous If you’re feeling guilty right now, go ahead and put that away as it won’t serve you or your little one. Everyone has some room for improvement, and Coastal Pediatric Dentistry® is here to help show you an...
Read more

Going for the Gold?

Image
On the left is the older allow, on the right the new one that my lab has chosen to use The cost of a penny weight of pure gold is currently $79.53. The cost of a penny weight of pure palladium is $130.6. It used to be that palladium was added instead of gold to the precious metals often used for pfms, but now laboratories are finding that palladium is no longer affordable. The lab that I am using has just changed the formulation of the metal it's using to one that has more gold than palladium. I really do not mind, but metals with more gold are softer and often easier for a dentist to accidentally polish off delicate margins. It is important when polishing "higher gold" formulations to exert less hand pressure when performing the final polishing of the crown's margins. Other wise there should be no problem with this change. Traditionally labs have chosen alloys with higher gold percentages for optimal esthetics, since alloys with higher concentrations of ...
Read more

Lemon Juice – The Good, the Bad, & the Sour

Image
In a great tale of opposites, lemon juice can be both acidic and basic, or alkaline. Read on to find out why people are talking about this, and what it means for your oral and overall health . What is pH and why does it matter? Drinking lemon juice (usually diluted in a glass of water or added to a cup of tea) is a beloved health tonic among fans of natural medicine. Potential benefits include lower cholesterol, lower inflammation in the body, and increased metabolism and energy. Lemon also contains high levels of antioxidants and vitamin C that boost your immune system. On a scale from 0-14, a pH of 7 is neutral (pure water) while numbers below 7 are acidic (unhealthy), and above 7 are basic or alkaline (healthy). Believers in holistic health blame many ailments on the body’s pH being too low or too acidic. Increasing your body’s pH is called “alkalizing.” Lemon juice in its natural state is acidic with a pH of about 2, but once metabolized it actually becomes alkaline with a pH ...
Read more