SO ANNOYING running backwards and forwards to the dentist with a crown that just won’t stay in. I often think that these types of teeth are telling us something: they’re simply not happy; something is amiss and needs attention.
Crowns come out for all sorts of reasons, the simplest being that they just need a stronger cement to hold them in so that they can resist the forces created during eating.
At other times it can be due to the remaining tooth having softened due to sugar causing the tooth to rot. If a tooth is soft from decay none of the dental glues work. Dental bonds are similar to any household glue in the way that they need clean, dry surfaces to stick to (PS – bad idea to try house glue on your teeth).
It’s human nature to want to find someone or something to blame for annoyances in our lives and this includes dental problems. The hardest thing is to accept that something that we do to ourselves has caused a problem but if your tooth has decayed, then try using this as a light-bulb moment.
You can move your teeth from unstable and always needing dentistry into the happy zone where crowns stay in longer and you don’t need fillings as often. But you have to take a deep, honest-to-goodness breath and have a frank analysis of your diet to discover the sugar foods lurking in your kitchen cupboards that are causing your teeth to soften.
By adopting a diet with less frequent sugar foods then your teeth will go into disco dance mode and remain healthier and stronger for longer.
Sometimes a crown that has been in for decades bizarrely pops off. Eek! Normally it’s been a slow run-up to this type of scenario with your mouth changing slowly over the years.
It’s not uncommon for someone to lose teeth over a long period until a tipping point is reached and suddenly there aren’t enough teeth left to take all the forces of chewing. The crown gets overworked and comes off. The trick is to replace the missing teeth and the crown at the same time for long-term stability.
