I’ve had a few dental crowns for a bit over twelve years. One has always had a slight defect, but you couldn’t see it. In fact, I could barely even feel it until recently. I’ve always known it was there because I could feel the “dip” with my tongue. Now, however, it is visible and seems to have a line going across it. Would you consider this a dental emergency or can it wait?
Bridgette
Dear Bridgette,
I would not consider it a dental emergency where you would need to get in that day, however, I would get it looked at. There has been an obvious change. Given that and their age, I think it may be at risk of breaking. It sounds like it has developed a crack. You don’t want that to happen at an inconvenient time, even though there probably is not a hugely convenient time to have to see the dentist.
You have a couple of options here.
First, if all of those crowns are close to the same age, you can replace all of the crowns you have at the same time. The biggest benefit to that is you won’t have to go to the dentist over and over again each time one of them reaches the limit of their usefulness. You can do a one-and-done kind of thing.
One word of warning. If a dentist tells you that you must replace all of them in order to get them to match, that will not be the dentist for you. It is not necessary to replace them all to get them to match. He or she will only need to do that if they have trouble with color matching skills.
A second option is for you to get these repaired only as needed. The biggest benefit to this is that it will not be as big a cost up front as if you did them all at the same time.
There is no right or wrong with these options as long as the other crowns are healthy and sound.
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