Crown trouble! Any advice welcome.. Very anxious ?

[Sophiewill]

Hello, I'm hoping that you lovely people may be able to offer some advice or share with me your experience about crowns..
I had a crown fitted over a year ago on a front tooth.. This crown has now completely fallen off, leaving nothing but tooth in the gum and none above the gum.. The dentist has said about putting in a post but I'm very anxious that this isn't going to be possible due to the lack of tooth that I can see and feel that is left..
obviously with it being a very noticeable tooth I'm petrified of being left with nothing..
i have an appointment in two days time and I'm hibernating with my gappy mouth for them two days and I'm just scared I'll be left with nothin!

thankyou in advance for any advice given

 

[Deck2015]

Hi Sophie --

You've had your appointment by now and I hope it was so much easier and reassuring than you expected!

I had veneers on both front upper central teeth for many, many years due to a bad bike accident as a kid -- they NEVER fell off and one of them was broken very near the gum line during the original accident. I don't know if I had posts in either; if I did, they were very well blended - my veneers looked *exactly* like natural teeth, color match was perfect and translucency at the bottom of the tooth was very natural. I'd imagine if they could perform the miracles with my front teeth giving me (better) teeth as restorations than my natural teeth back in the 80s, they have much better tools and techniques at their disposal now. I'm sure your Dentist is giving you the best possible restoration within your budget while simultaneously figuring cosmetic appearance AND function as top priorities into the equasion.

Let us know how you got on.

 

[Sophiewill]

Thankyou so much for your reply! Yes I've been and I've had a post and temporary tooth fitted and no longer have a gap which has honestly made such a difference to the way I felt the week previous to the appointment.. Unfortunately the tooth root is so badly damaged by a really bad root canal treatment and I have to get back in a week for an extraction of that tooth and the placement of a temporary denture until I have a bridge fitted.. And if that wasn't enough the front tooth next to the tooth I've got this trouble with is badly damaged on the inside which was picked up on an X Ray and I'm likely to have to have extensive treatment on that too! it just feels like one thing after another.. But I've been given the promise by the dentist that throughout this whole process so that is comforting! Xx

 

[Sophiewill]

My reply was meant to say that I've been promised by the dentist I won't be left with any gaps throughout the whole process so that's comforting! Xx

 

[Deck2015]

Sophie - I'm right there with ya, sister!

Lost my first tooth just last December and now the RCT on the tooth next to that front upper incisor isn't settling well at all. I may end up with another extraction soon and adding a second front upper tooth to my existing partial

The somewhat good news is that according to my dentist, I only have room for one implant in that area and they can build basically a crown attached to a crown for both missing teeth and anchor it onto the single implant - saves money, functions as well or better than two implants into a tight space. Still...it's yet another extraction and another bone graft. This dentistry is NOT cheap!! I'm still hoping my RCT tooth will settle, but I'm very suspicious that it's been cracked during the RCT as it did not have this particular pain before the RCT To be fair, it was painful prior to RCT -- ligament was inflamed hence why Endo did RCT, but no infection...but the pain since the RCT has been a different type of "cold" pain...no reaction to cold or hot that I've noticed, but feels like a burning cold feeling when I chew with it sometimes or push at it with my tongue. Very, very frustrating.

Don't get too discouraged if you don't immediately love your partial...no one does from what I can tell. My relationship with my partial is a love/hate relationship...you don't want to NOT have it but you hate the feeling of wearing it and the pressure on the neighboring teeth. You do adjust, eventually. I'm told that by the time I'm ready for my implant, I'll have just adjusted to the partial.

 

[LissaHope]

I also heard that it's possible to get a root canal without getting a crown or cap. Do you know anything about that? I hate the thought of having my tooth ground down & a crown put on. The dentist said the crown would be white and matched to my tooth color. But I'm already worried about how my tooth will feel when it's a dead shell with no feeling, but to then add a crown... I don't think I'll tolerate it well. They did say it would be 2 separate appointments and that would give me time to adjust to the tooth before adding the crown.
I've read stories of root canals going wrong or teeth breaking or falling out after a root canal. I just feel like there MUST be another way to fix my tooth so I can chew on that side without going so drastic as a root canal! Especially if the infection is so small that they aren't even sure if there's an infection there. If they aren't positive there's an infection, how could the infection have gotten into the root?? And back in June when I had the original filling there was ZERO sign of infection, same when I had a 2nd xray in August & again in September... no infection. and my symptoms were happening back then also. Only after the dentist opened up the tooth 2 weeks ago to clean it out & refill it again do they now think they see an infection starting. That's why I feel like this problem tooth isn't due to infection. I think my dentist is tired of dealing with this tooth and they know a root canal will put an end to the situation. But that's not a good enough reason to do a root canal in my opinion. But im not a dentist, so I guess I really don't know anything ? this tooth is a molar. It's not the very back molar, but the ones just before it on the bottom left. Tooth #31 I think? Thank you so much for any information you can provide! I'm supposed to go back for the root canal on November 18th, I believe. Unless I can figure out another way to fix the tooth before then ?

 

[Gordon]

Getting a root canal on a back tooth requires the removal of quite a lot of the top of the tooth to get access to the canals and for the root canal to be done. What's left of the tooth is quite weak and without the nerve it tends to become brittle over time.
If it's not crowned then there's a higher than average chance that the tooth will split during chewing which will almost certainly mean it'll need extracted.
Crowning it reinforces the remainder and should prevent this failure in the future.
Obviously, this doesn't apply to all teeth in every case but it's generally true.

Nobody does root canals unless they have to, they're boring as hell for the dentist and assistant and patients hate them.