Decay under a crown??

[gromitsdad]

I found out today that the loose crown I have (it's only been loose a few weeks) has a large amount of decay beneath it. How can this happen to a tooth that I had a root canal on only four years ago? Can you get decay in an area that has had a root canal?

The x-ray showed the crown, and above the crown you can see a white or clear line running upwards, that is the root canal. Above the crown is a dark or black area he said was the decay. He said he would have to pull the crown and rid the area of the decay and that there are several options after that. He mentioned an implant or a bridge. Are there any options other than those? I really don't want to have to deal with a bridge and I hear implants are very expensive.

I'm going back next Monday for a cleaning and to discuss the next step...any ideas??

Thanks very much!!

 

[Zzzdentist]

Yep you sure can get decay anywhere there are teeth in your mouth regardless if they are crowned, root canaled, filled, etc. Hopefully they can remove it, clean up the tooth, and either put it back on or make a new crown for you. If it's quite bad under there, they might have to take it out, but your dentist would be able to tell you what likelihood there is of that once the crown is removed to assess things. Sometimes it's perfectly salvageable. Sometimes not.

In the worse case if you lose the tooth, one can always leave it empty if funds are limited. There can be some consequences of drifting teeth, gaps, that sort of thing. Oh yeah, a partial is one other option, but if you don't have a lot of missing teeth, it's really not all that great.