[OT] Dental crowns

[Tim Watts]

Definitely not a DIY - but my "temporary" filling patching up a part broken molar has just started failing. Not bad for 2 years, the dentist expected it would fail sooner...

I guess it's time to get on with it.

He told me there are 2 types - a plastic crown which is quicker to fit and a ceramic (?) proper one that is a 2 stage process.

My problem is, apart from hating dental work (though I'm OK once the local jab has taken) I have an appalling gag reflex which makes it very hard for him to work near the back of my mouth. So that's worrying me a bit with the wax impression needed for a "proper" one.

Personally I'd rather be half out of it so he can take his time and do a proper job, maybe fix a few other things too...

So does anyone know the relative merits of plastic crowns vs proper ones.

I'm guessing the plastic does not last so long? Or do they just wear down?

How are crowns fixed? Glue?

[ss]

Well if have just had a proper crown fall out, it lasted 25 years, I doubt if a plastic one would, having it redone tomorrow :-( Dentists are used to people gagging and freaking out just go for it.

[Andy Burns]

Dunno I wasn't offered plastic, I have ceramic on gold, no problems from any of them (some are bridges, others are on implants) after 9 years, in fact I wish I'd had the one tooth they filled at the same time crowned instead, it crumbled last year.

I think they like to call it 'cement', but basically it's a specialised glue able to withstand pretty high compression (and slightly lower tension).

[Bill]

In message , Andy Burns writes

Yesterday I did a tour of the family's houses with a piano tuner (you get a better price when all 3 are done in the same session).

At one point the question of glue for ivory piano keys came up. I described to him the tests I'd done for bone guitar nuts using superglue mixed with baking powder, as recommended on the internet. He seemed interested in trying it.

He had bought some specialised glue in the past that would glue bone and ivory, and he said it was also used by dentists. He said it cost about £31 for a small tube.

He used evostick to glue up the wood + felt damper on the piano that was left in son 2's house.

[Mike Barnes]

It sounds like a sedative would be useful - either from the dentist or your GP. Failing that, a bottle of good malt whisky. :-)

I've been offered plastic only as a temporary solution, for a few weeks. They might well last longer than that but they surely won't last as long as the real thing. My front teeth were crowned in 1974 and are as good as new (which is more than you can say for the gums around them, but that's another matter).

It's a cement which AIUI is designed to hold tight in normal use but let go when the dentist wants to remove the crown to get at the tooth underneath. ISTR that a hammer and/or pair of pincers are the tools of choice.

There are stories of people who've refixed fallen-off crowns with Araldite, and regretted it.

[Bod]

[Robin]

I have the same problem with the gag reflex. My first 2 crowns >15 years ago - both molars - were a pain in that respect. But I have had one replaced and one new one done in the past 5 years without problem. That was because new dentist said they no longer use the massive old plates for taking an impression. Good to his word he used a much smaller jobbie[1]. And the gunge[2] set faster too. So in your shoes I'd talk to the dentist but probably go for the ceramic.

If you really, really don't like the thought of an impression being taken you could look into CEREC (short for CERamic REconstruction). That uses digital photos. But my dentist had only been to the conference on it (in some exotic resort of course).

[1] possibly not the right jargon ;) [2] my excuse is that I wasn't in a position to take notes or check the terminology!

[Tim Watts]

(General reply having read everything so far)

Wow. Lot of interest there! Thanks for the fine words - I'm sure it's not that bad - just didn't bother as the magic white temporary was holding pretty well (till now). My current dentist is a south african (the best IME) and he has managed to do a root canal on me once - though he needed a bugger of a lot of local anaesthetic - more than he thought.

He's a damn good bloke and used to southern jessies like me - but I still do not look forward to going!

I did mention the sedative (if nothing else, just to let him work in peace) thinking it was just a mild something...

Apparently it's a bit stronger than mild and it makes him want to do the job at a different clinic and you have to get taken home by someone - sounds like overkill.

I've found Meadowsweet tea helpful but sadly I have none left and I've only found it in Wales.

Apart from having slightly crappy teeth, I blame the Butcher of Banstead (sure he's dead now).

When I was at school, he just filled everything, I am sure half of it was not necessary - and he was a fan of the "trench fill" which takes out an awful lot of perfectly good tooth - so all my molars are metal.

[Vir Campestris]

Can't have been Banstead, I lived at the other end of Surrey.

It was only when I did stats at Uni that it occurred to me that there was something fishy about always needing 1 filling from 20 independent back teeth...

Andy

[Martin Bonner]

If you are in Cambridge or Milton Keynes, my dentist (search for Dental Hub) does CEREC crowns for £395 each. It's a fascinating system - embedded PC to do the scanning (with a lovely GUI), and then a CNC milling machine (to almost bring it back on topic) to create the crown while you wait.

[Andrew Gabriel]

I still go to my original dentist in Dunstable, because he does these while you wait. About the same price. I watched mine being milled. After that, it gets a quick test in place, and then taken and fired in a kiln to make the surface like smooth glass, and then glued in. It takes a couple of hours, if you include the time for the milling and firing, but you can wonder off for a coffee or walk around the shops in the gaps (I was too interested in watching it being made;-). You end up with perfect gaps between the teeth as well - just right for flossing with a reasonably tight fit, something which my teeth never had naturally.

The very first one I had done fell out at about 10 years old, but I took it with me and he cleaned it up and glued it back in again, as it was just glue failure, and not due to decay underneath.

[harryagain]

Re anaesthetic. A small proportion of people don't wake up. ie death. This happened to my wife's best friend. So nowadays an aneasthetist is present. Which costs more & still some people die. The aneasthetic/muscle relaxer leaves a samll amount of permanent damage to your liver too. So, best avoided if at all possible.

These women that have lots of cosmetic surgery are barking mad.

[Tim Watts]

Fascinating -

Mine does not have the milling equipment - but he's the only man I trust in my mouth...

[Nightjar]

You are a happy bunny Harry.

Assuming that the dentists will be using a general anaesthetic, rather than the more probable moderate sedation, the risk of death is 1 in

200,000, or half the risk of being affected by a murder. The type of surgery and the person's health are both factors in the risk; 1-2% of patients undergoing cardiac artery surgery die under anaesthetic. A healthy, reasonably fit, non-smoker has very little to fear from general anaesthesia.

[Nightjar]

I had always though that the plastic ones were only temporary. This page gives a nice description of the various options for crowns, although I dread to think what they charge for Zirconia crowns, if their prices start at £700.

As others have said, usually dental cement, although one of mine involved setting the adhesive with UV light.

[Chris J Dixon]

AIUI, dentists used to be able to administer a general, of whatever type, with very little control, but nowadays things are much more tightly regulated. The aim is to ensure that a qualified anaesthetist is on hand, reducing the chance of error, and hopefully being able to cope better in the event of problems.

I can still smell the mask used to put us under for extractions as a child - one of which apparently left me out for rather longer than expected. Who knows what might have happened. That particular dentist retired suddenly - it was either early onset Alzheimer's, or he had been at his drugs cabinet.

Whilst at Quarry Bank Mill, I noticed the display included a dentist chair. The articulated drilling arm was there, but the whirring elastic belt had obviously perished. Vivid memories of sitting in such a chair as the slow drill ground away at my molars. Even the light - a cluster of four globes, was the same.

Chris

[Nightjar]

On 19/03/2015 08:27, Chris J Dixon wrote: ...

A mixture of the sweetness of the gas and the smell of rubber.

I had that too, but that, apparently, was one of the problems with nitrous oxide. Modern anaesthetics are a lot safer and more predictable.

[Bod]

I remember when I was about 10 years old, waking up half way through having a couple of teeth out by gas. Bloody painful.

[Tim Watts]

On 19/03/15 08:19, Nightjar I had always though that the plastic ones were only temporary. This page

Zirconia? Wibble...

Perhaps I can go all "Jaws from Bond" with titanium?

[stuart noble]

Strange that I recently had 2 crowns of some 40 years standing come loose within a few weeks of each other. I can only assume some fundamental change takes place in one's gob at a certain age, and everything falls apart. The second crown I glued back with some stuff I bought in the chemist. Very d-i-y, but probably not very permanent