Will I eventually need implants?

[AlwaysAnxious]

Firstly thank you to the dentists who give their time free on this forum, you are really helping so many of us. Thank you.

I haven’t had the best time with dentists in the past. My canines came in rotated and I was very self conscious. My front teeth had mild fluorosis discolouring so when I tried to whiten them it just made the specks more obvious. Then I got a chip on my front tooth. All this added up to me being hugely self conscious when I smiled. A local dentist said nothing could rotate my canines back. I then went down the cosmetic route and was told I couldn’t have veneers as there was too many differences across my front teeth including my canines. I had only wanted my canines made more aesthetic. (sadly) I was talked into x6 crowns on my front teeth. I didn’t understand what this meant to my natural teeth and blindly went ahead.

The cosmetic dentist shaved my natural teeth down to jagged pegs. Took off way too much. I have been told this by my current dentist.

My question: because every time I need the teeth re-crowned I lose some more natural tooth, will I need to eventually get implants? As there will be no natural tooth left?

I am distraught at this thought.

 

[Gordon]

Short answer, no you won't.
Longer answer. Crowns can last for ages now with modern materials and cements. The amount of natural tooth that would need to be removed IF a crown needed replaced would be inconsequential in the long term.

 

[AlwaysAnxious]

Thank you so much Gordon. I'm only 37 and have had them replaced once so far. I expect to be replacing them every 7-10 years as they are my front teeth and I also clench badly at night time (splints cause migraines so looking into jaw B0t0x) so I was so concerned at my rate of replacement.

What if I have to have root canals in all these crowned teeth? I’ve had a root canal in one of the incisors a few years back. Won’t this remove even more of the tooth structure? ?

 

[Gordon]

Try hypnosis for the clenching, it works really well. Again with modern crown materials I don't expect the current crowns to need replacing on that cycle. Yes a root canal will remove tooth structure, but nothing significant in a front tooth.

 

[letsconnect]

Try hypnosis for the clenching, it works really well.

Shameless plug for @DrMike here, but if you're looking into hypnosis, he's made a hypnosis mp3 specifically on the topic of "Stop clenching & grinding" which is available on ebay (just do a search for ebay mike gow clenching).