I had six dental crowns placed on my front teeth. The whole thing has been quite the disaster. First, the temporaries felt like they had leakage, which made me worry there was an infection. He agreed to check. He took the temporary crowns off, did a fluoride treatment, and prescribed me an antibiotic for safe measure. When the crowns came in, the bite was completely off, which meant a lot of grinding them down. Then they said there was too much liquid going to the teeth. I wasn’t sure what that meant, but was relieved when he said they’d have to be sent back. I hoped that meant the next set would fit better. I went back to temporaries. The new crowns have arrived and I’ve had burning gums and sensitivity since putting them on. Sometimes it feels like there is a wad in my mouth What do I do? They’re supposed to be permanently bonded in three days.

Eliza

Dear Eliza,

I don’t think this is the best dentist for you. In fact, I believe he is in over his head. One of the reasons I think that is he gave you crowns instead of porcelain veneers. Unless you already had crowns on those teeth or there was something wrong with them, crowns would be a massive overtreatment. Crowns necessitate that a lot more tooth structure has to be removed. If the teeth are healthy, there is no point in doing that. While that is water under the bridge, it is indicative of his skill level. When dentists suggest crowns over veneers unnecessarily, it means they do not have a lot of cosmetic training. This rarely goes well for the patient.

The first thing I want you to do is to call them first thing in the morning and tell them you do not want them bonding these on permanently until two things happen. First, the crowns feel right. When crowns are fitted and placed correctly, they are completely unnoticeable. You can tell your dentist I said that if he tries to disagree with that.

Second, you know why your gums are burning. I’m wondering if he gave you porcelain fused to metal crowns and you are having some kind of allergic reaction. That is one of the first things I would ask. Ask him what the composition is of the crowns he gave you. If he says he doesn’t know, point out that the lab would have given him an identalloy certificate telling him the exact composition of the metal alloy. If there is any nickel in the makeup, that is the most likely culprit. Many people are allergic to nickel. You would need to switch to all-porcelain crowns.

In reality, on front teeth, you would want all-porcelain crowns anyway. The metal-based crowns will eventually develop a gray line at your gumline. This will be visible and unattractive. That is not something you’d want in a smile makeover.

The fluoride treatment he gave you was pointless. Leaking temporaries means that you have bacteria under there. Fluoride remineralizes teeth. It is not an antibacterial. The right treatment for that would have been peroxide or chlorhexidine. Both of those are antibacterials.

What I am going to suggest is you have them use temporary cement, which they already should have done, and then you go to another dentist to get a second opinion on these crowns.

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