DIY dentistry... sticking a loose crown back in ?

I have some crowns (two of which are at the back) that have never fallen off. They've been there for over 30 years.

When I had my one done, the dentist quoted two prices, one twice the other. I asked what the difference was, other than the money, and he said "a crown that fits" (a private rather than an NHS one). I had the expensive one. When it finally fell off (after about

Shh!!! . Mines been in for 15 years now.

It pretty much relates to time taken in preparation and materials used, so no big surprises.

Im amazed by this thread how old are you lot is this level of tooth decay average in the population I don't have a single filling neither do any of my three children all now in their 30s Must be down to genetics or a dietary issue.

Since it's a question about sticking a crown back on I'd not expect someone with perfect teeth to know much about it - unless a dentist.

Mine were atrocious too.

In my own experience, there are more bad _private_ dentists than good ones. In the past few years, I've had 4 bad ones and 2 good ones. Price is not necessarely a good guide.

Sylvain.

Any change out of £10,000? :)

Sylvain.

Do you have regular dental checks, and dental care _advice_?

Sylvain.

Probably about that, I paid £7,200 for 5 hours work one afternoon placing the titanium implants. The crowns were extra. I had a lot of other restorations done at the same time, total cost about £15k.

Because of the missing back teeth I had been chewing on the biting edge of my front teeth I had lost 2-3 mm off my front teeth and the enamel had started spalling off from the raw edge. When I mentioned it to my NHS dentist he said "It's your age, what we do is round them off when they get like this."

The private dentist said that was precisely the opposite to the correct treatment which was to add restorations not remove more healthy tooth material.

Because off the missing tooth material my lower dental arch had collapsed inwards and the front teeth were crossing over each other. ISTR Tony Blair also has this if you notice. I had to have orthodontic treatment to pull them all square and crowns on all of them but the ultimate result was very good.

Unfortunately the dentist got very greedy towards the end of my treatment. Prices went up, he changed the working conditions of his staff and they left, he started doing his own sedations with an ECG machine which he borrowed, and the cost was double what a Private GP used to charge to come in and do it.

Needless to say the atmosphere in the practise became unpleasant :-(

DG

You were lucky that this happened "towards the end of your treatment". I believe that we're entitled to a fair profit, and not a maximum one. This is capitalism at its worst.

P.S. I believe that we have the most expensive dentists and doctors in the world (probably other trades as well). P.P.S. I heard very recently that London is the most expensive city in the world.

Sylvain.

I go for check-ups every so often last one in December of last year. I was probably being a bit naïve, teeth are not a regular conversation point in our family I was just surprised at the number of people replying that have needed extensive dental work,

I have one crown (actually an inlay) required because I broke a molar on a piece of mussel shell in a moulle meuniere in Brussels.

"Mark" typed

Many in my generation (born 1958) have bad teeth and have had some pretty grotty dentistry. I was very surprised when someone in my year at school had not had any fillings; the rest of us certainly had!

AIUI dental decay is a disease of the under 25s and if you last that long without decay, you won't get much later on.

Fluoride toothpaste and fissure sealing cam on the scene after our teeth started decaying. We were then treated by dentists on piecework, who benefited by doing shoddy jobs quickly. Badly done amalgam fillings do not last long and our teeth came to bits after repeated shoddy fillings. Then we had crowns fitted...

Bet it was worth it though...

A radio prog the other week reckoned it was cheaper to fly to and stay overnight in IIRC Poland for even fairly simple dental work. And the quality of work is at least as good as here.

I have had at most 5 fillings, I currently have one, I think. I had the first one at age 33.

SWMBO has just about every tooth filled, most were done before 25.

One of my fillings was a shoddy unnecessary one by a dentist who disappeared. I've now lost the tooth. Piece work was a bad idea. SWMBO has had many fillings/crowns replaced several times on change of dentist. I have good teeth (no sugar as child as mother was diabetic and also hereditry) but the genes gave us all poor gums. The excellent teeth (just like my mother and siblings) are now falling out.

Maybe, but Sylvain is wrong. According to the beeb London got to No 2 in

Douglas de Lacey [1]

My dentist indicated that after the age of about 30 more teeth are lost through gum problems than direct decay.

I have always had pretty reasonable oral health, but gum health has improved considerably since diagnosis of and treatment for diabetes. I have always tended to avoid overt or covert sugar anyway, but improved blood glucose control has made a difference to gum health. So as an aside, and considering your mother, have you had blood glucose screening?

According to personal experience, Moscow is very expensive, Oslo less so but still up there. Poland is considerably cheaper than much of former western Europe although there are already signs that that won't last forever.