New dental crowns placed over old crowns

[lookingsmile]

I had four dental crowns put on in 1979 because the enamel on my teeth were bad due to eating lemons every day as a kid. I loved my crowns, they were great. In 1996 while living in another state and having a new dentist I woke up one morning thinking one of my crowns was loose, rushing to the dentist I discovered that the crown wasn't loose the problem was with the root of the tooth and the dentist said the tooth had to be pulled. The dentist told me that instead of having four crowns I was now going to have to have the crowns connected due to the missing tooth. The dentist did not remove my old crowns which were now 16 years old, instead he just cemented on new crowns over my old crowns. I was 117 pound with the largest teeth they made. I have had some problems, all of my fillings have fell out and my teeth and all my teeth are really bad. After paying over 7 thousand dollars in 95 and 96 for dental work I can't afford to go back in and I'm scared because I must have infection and I'm scared that I will loose my teeth that are under the crowns. I have cavities in every tooth in my mouth with one jaw tooth needing to be cut out. The grey metal shows at the gum line on all the crowns. I can't believe that a dentist would do this. What needs done. I have HP now and have an imune problems, I'm scared to go to see a dentist. PS The dentist was from a respected and big dental group, did he do this because removing my old crowns would have been more work or what and shouldn't he have told me before he put the new crowns over old crowns what he was going to do. What steps do I take and will any infection I have spread in my body?

 

[Zzzdentist]

Are you absolutely certain they placed the new splinted crowns over the old crowns? They may have used the old cores if they were in good shape, but it isn't that common to place new restorations over old crowns. I have seen some mention of a technique where a damaged bridge was repaired using a new coping over the existing bridge which was recontoured, but that sort of thing isn't very common I think.