Having a crown redone

[sharon]

I have decay under one of my crowns so am having the crown removed, the decay removed and a new crown put on. Needless to say I am beyond anxious about this appt. (Though I'm not new to the crown word, having had at least a dozen done).

1) Is it hard to get the old crown off? As in, how much drilling can I expect for this part of it?

2) Once the crown is off and the decay removed I'm assuming there is less drilling than for a first time crown since the tooth is already shaved down. Am I right in this?

3) Overall is the total time for having a crown redone more or less than a first time crown?

And then I have the worry that the decay is too close to the root (he said this is a possibility) and I'll end up needing a root canal.

 

[Gordon]

1) What kind of crown is it? Gold crown on a molar? Porcelain crown or something else?
gGold crowns are tricky depending on what they're stuck on with, they either twist off easily or need cut off. Porcelain crowns are usually easy, quick drill into the face to weaken it then crack it with a hand instrument. Modern crowns are so hard to remove you virtually have to redo the crown prep with the drill but it's unlikely one of those would get decay under it...

2) Yes

3) Yes Depends how long it takes to get the old crown off... back to Q1.

 

[sharon]

Thank you Gordon. It's a porcelain crown (I think it is anyway, unless they put porcelain over gold??)

When you refer to a "modern crown" how recent would that have to be? I'm not sure how old this one is other than at least 7 years. Would that be considered modern? I'm curious - what's the difference between a modern crown and a not modern crown?

If it is modern then the appointment will take longer than if it's not?

I can't wait for this to be over.

 

[Gordon]

Modern crowns are from newer porcelain materials, they are completely bonded onto the tooth surface rather than just glued in like the older porcelain crowns. Yes, removing them takes a bit longer, you have to literally cut them off and it's more like having the original crown prep done over again.
However, they very rarely leak and allow decay to form beneath them, so the fact that yours has done so would suggest it's a more traditional porcelain crown.

 

[sharon]

My crown redo appointment didn't go very well. She took the crown off and found that there was too much decay and what's left of the tooth has to go, there's no way it could be saved. She wasn't comfortable doing the extraction so I'm going to an oral surgeon at the end of Sept (earliest available appt). And then possibly an implant. I'm not really happy about this but I wasn't really happy about having a redo plus possible root canal either.

Question for the dentists - This problem has obviously been going on for quite a while (3-4 years?) as I've had recurrent pain in the tooth. It will hurt for a couple weeks and then the pain goes away for months, then it comes back again and then goes away. Is there any way he could have seen or felt this deay? I never miss a 6 month cleaning and check up. I know decay under other crowns has been seen/felt when he probes around the crown edges with his sharp pokey tool. How could he have missed this one? I have several other older crowns and worry there are other teeth with the same problem that he may be missing.

 

[Gordon]

THat's a shame. It can be nearly impossible to see the decay, might be possible to feel it with an explorer but not if it was leaking in an inaccessible part of the tooth.

So that's a definite maybe as an answer, sorry