Zirconia Crown crack (Defected)

[Askingquestion]

Hello,

During an appointment made for something else my dentist checked my whole mouth. After being very pleased about my oral routine they noticed that my recently placed zirconia crown (1 year) has a "micro crack".

They've said this is rare and something not seen often, but it's near the gumline and wasn't caused by me, and they said it could have been during the cooling down period after milling that it developed.

I meant to ask this question whilst in there but I get nervous in these settings and sometimes I feel like asking question after question can bother them especially since I already asked loads of questions prior about an unrelated thing.

Anyway, the dentist said they will replace the crown free of charge in a few months after the pandemic. He said in normal circumstances he would do it right away, and he doesn't want to wait a year etc due to the possibility of it breaking.

My question is, won't bacteria harbour in this crack and get underneath the crown and cause we problems? Especially, since I will have to wait a few months for a replacement. Also, have you guys heard of a crown being defective (especially zirconia) and still being placed?

I'm also a little worried about shaving more of the tooth off to replace it, as in the future when this dental crown has gone past it's expiry date (as opposed to being defective from the start) they might not be able to replace it with another one due to not enough tooth left which may have been caused by shaving more off this time.

 

[Gordon]

No it won't harbour bacteria in sufficient numbers to be an issue. I assume they didn't notice the problem when they placed it or they would not have cemented it, considering they're about to have to lose a considerable amount of money to fix it, why would they fit it if they noticed the issue?
Don't worry too much about losing tooth structure removing the crown, it's not going to be a problem.

 

[Askingquestion]

No it won't harbour bacteria in sufficient numbers to be an issue. I assume they didn't notice the problem when they placed it or they would not have cemented it, considering they're about to have to lose a considerable amount of money to fix it, why would they fit it if they noticed the issue?
Don't worry too much about losing tooth structure removing the crown, it's not going to be a problem.

Thanks for the reassurance. After bad oral care during teenage years, I've finally kept up a good routine the last few years, cut sugar intake to about 15-20g a day and have started flossing using the c technique. I probably go overkill but I paid the price with a few fillings and one crown, and an suspected infection, which resulted in not being an infection after a second x-ray. So, I now am worried about any little thing that could impact my teeth.

For the specifics, the crown has the micro crack near the gum line, and said it would be impossible for it to be cracked by myself. Whether or not the crack was visible when cementing and only developed visibly after but had the underlying problem from cooling it down I don't know.

I know he said zirconia crowns rarely ever crack and are usually one of the best to have in terms of strength so he was a little shocked too.