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Why do my anterior crowns keep breaking?

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                                                                                Often it is desirable to increase the length of a patients anterior teeth. We can have our dental laboratory make a wax up proposal and can often transfer this proposal to the mouth by utilizing a putty matrix made from the wax up. These proposals are very helpful, but they may not be representative of the most desirable shape of the final restorations. Because the finished crown need to function in the mouth and allow dental excursions and most dentists prefer cuspid guidance. Cuspid guidance means that when a patient moves their lower jaw laterally their canine tooth bears the brunt of the occlusion. Although other teeth can be used to bear the forces created by lateral jaw movements, most dentists pr...

What kind of crowns do you recommend ?

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  As dentistry inevitably evolves, the types of crowns our practice recommends has changed as well. It used to be that our default posterior crowns were either gold or porcelain to fused crowns... While I still recommend full gold crowns for second and third molar teeth, I am utilizing Full thickness esthetic zirconium crowns for most other posterior teeth ( first molars, first bicuspids and second bicuspids). The Esthetic zirconium crowns , when properly done are great restorations for many posterior teeth.  I believe that with proper tooth preparations and the use of more modern cements , these crowns may  last an extremely long time (10-30 years).  For anterior teeth, I use different types of crowns, depending on the individual saturation. In most situations I prefer lithium disilicate crowns with full lingual lithium disilicate but with minor porcelain layering on the facial surface to allow for superior esthetics.  For some teeth with compromised tooth...

How long have you been blogging?

 I started the Ask Dr Spindel dental blog with 3 posts in 2005... so I have been blogging for twenty years. I started it as a demonstration of my writing skills. Several of my patients were involved in a start up called Ivillage that featured article that might interest woman readers. After publishing my first posts I forwarded the link to one of my patients who worked there. Unfortunately, soon after, he left his job and I was left with the blog that I didn't need. . Since it was hosted by Blogger for free (Thank you Google) I kept it active and used it as a source of possibly relevant dental information for my patients and the public. Initially I started writing up my answers to frequently asked questions by my patients and eventually I pretty much answered all their questions (at least those that were suitable for publication) in the first three years. Now I just write about what ever I feel like discussing online or maybe an interest to dentists and the public.  At the m...