Your Dental Crown Fell Out -- Can It Be Recemented?
The right dental crown can make you feel like royalty every time you smile -- until it falls out. Then, you're panicked over how to fix it. Will you have to spend your valuable time and money getting a brand new one? Can the existing dental crown be saved by a recementing dental crown procedure? And if so, how exactly will your cosmetic dentist do it?
The easiest solution comes down to one word -- recementing.
Like the word suggests, a dental crown can simply be recemented back onto your tooth. For an expert Los Angeles cosmetic dentist, recementing is a quick and easy procedure. For you, it's a painless and cost-effective solution. All your dentist will have to do is clean out any bacteria that built up on your tooth after the crown fell out, then apply new bonding adhesive and slide your crown back into place. Just like that, your crown will look and feel as good as new.
Sounds great, right?
But it's fair to warn you that not EVERY dental crown can be recemented. Whether or not yours can depends on a few different things.
For starters, what kind of damage have you actually done to your dental crown? Has it fallen out in one whole piece? Has it cracked or chipped? Is it now in a bunch of pieces? The answer to these questions will determine if recementing dental crown will work or if your cosmetic dentist will have to create a brand new crown.
In the majority of cases, a dental crown that simply slips off whole can be recemented. Cracked and chipped crowns, however, make things trickier. A good cosmetic dentist in Los Angeles will be able to look at your crown and determine if the damage is severe enough to warrant starting over from scratch. Even if it's not, fixing it is slightly more involved than just applying some new bonding adhesive and sliding it back on.
You also need to figure out why your dental crown fell off in the first place. Even if it can be recemented quickly and easily, you need to make sure that you're not doing anything to put your dental crown in peril. You also need to make sure that there's not something structurally wrong with either the crown or your tooth. Otherwise, even the best recement job won't work!
Remember, a dental crown slides over your existing tooth and covers up the entire exposed portion -- from your gum line on down. When installed by an expert cosmetic dentist, a porcelain crown is built to last. In fact, you should be able to count on your crown lasting at least five years. And thanks to today's technology, some cosmetic dental porcelain crowns last far longer -- sometimes three or four times longer!
But that doesn't mean your dental crown isn't immune to getting damaged.
If you eat a lot of chewy or sticky foods, you're putting your crown at risk every time you take a bite. The same applies if you grind your teeth, chew on ice cubes, or do anything else that putts excessive stress and strain on the crown.
Your brushing and flossing regimen can also determine whether or not your crown sticks around for the long haul. If the tooth underneath your dental crown becomes severely decayed, there isn't anything for the crown to "hang onto". You may think that your tooth is safe from bacteria because it's covered by the crown, but that's not the case. Germs can easily work their way past your crown and into your tooth. It's also possible to develop cavities in a tooth that's covered by a crown. That's why your ongoing hygiene habits are so important!
Sometimes, though, people do everything right and their crowns STILL fall out. That's because the wild card in all of this is the bonding adhesive that was used to attach your crown to your tooth in the first place.
Just like your porcelain crown, your bonding adhesive has its own lifespan. If it's been ten or fifteen years since your crown was installed, it shouldn't come as a huge surprise if it falls out in one whole piece.
But what if your dental crown is relatively new and falls out?
It's not the most common issue in the world, but sometimes, the bonding adhesive isn't quite right from the start. If it's not capable of holding as tightly as it should, your crown will slide right off, and your cosmetic dentist will have to recement it back in place.
Now that you know what kinds of issues lead to -- and can be solved by – recementing dental crown, let's talk about what you need to do as soon as your dental crown falls off.
Remember, chipped and cracked dental crowns usually can't be recemented, so you'll need to take steps to protect your crown right after it slides off. Start by rinsing it off with some water. Then, soak it in Milton solution for fifteen minutes to sterilize it. (If you can't find any Milton solution anywhere, some 3% Hydrogen Peroxide that you buy at your local drugstore will also do the trick.) You should also use a toothbrush or a Q-tip to give the crown a gentle scrubbing. That way, you can rest easy knowing that all of the potentially-damaging bacteria is gone.
After a good soaking, rinse your dental crown off again and store it in a safe place. Ideally, you should put it in a plastic bag and then place it in something with hard sides (like a medicine bottle, for example) so that the porcelain doesn't chip or crack while it's in transit to your cosmetic dentist's office.
After that, take a look at your tooth. Does it look damaged? Unfortunately, even if your tooth wasn't damaged when your crown fell out, this could still be a painful process. Expect your exposed tooth to be sensitive, so treat it with caution until you can get in to see your cosmetic dentist! Typically, teeth with root canals underneath aren't as sensitive after a crown falls off, but in any event, you need to see your dentist as soon as possible.
Another reason to make an appointment with a good cosmetic dentist as soon as you can? The longer you wait, the harder it may be to recement your dental crown back into place. If your tooth has time to shift, or if your gums start to grow over the margins where the crown was attached, it will be much harder -- if not impossible -- for even the best cosmetic dentist in Los Angeles to recement it properly. Even a week without your crown is enough time for these changes to start developing, so time is really crucial!
And, finally, don't try to recement your dental crown yourself. You don't have the same tools and expertise that a good cosmetic dentist does. You could wind up doing irreversible damage to both your crown and your tooth if you try to tackle the problem all by yourself!
Dr. Arthur A. Kezian DDS
443 N. Larchmont Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90004
(323) 467-2777