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Showing posts from November, 2024

How long do crowns last?

 Nothing lasts forever, but the reason for  having a crown done is to "preserve your tooth". Often patients avoid going along with a dentists idea of making a crown for their tooth and instead ask can have a filling.  he truth is that almost any tooth can have a filling but the larger the restoration, the less predictable the result. Teeth with large fillings can me more prone to recurrent decay, food impaction( due to faulty contacts) and fracture ( since the tooth structure is compromised by not having a crown). The other day I was at my office. My son David was treating a longstanding patient of mine whose crown had come off. I peeked into his mouth and it was clear that he had experienced a fair amount of gingival recession around the tooth and he had developed recurrent furcal decay( decay between the roots).  David cleaned out the decay and filled it with a glass ionomer restoration and was able to recement the crown. I looked through my patient's old paper chart