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How To Care For Your Dental Crowns

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how to care for your dental crowns

Getting dental crowns near you can protect weak and damaged teeth, cover unsightly teeth, and protect teeth treated with a root canal from potential re-infection. Crowns are thimble-like restorations that slip over the top of a prepared tooth to completely cover and surround that tooth securely and snugly. As in the case of any dental restoration, the lifespan of that crown depends on a lot of different factors, including what you do. What do you need to do to care for your crowns?

Maintain good oral hygiene habits

Just how long your dental crowns in Red Deer will last depends on a huge number of factors. One of the most significant factors in just how long your crown will last is how well you care for your teeth and mouth. If you neglect your daily hygiene habits, the tooth capped by your crown and the gums around it can become infected by tooth decay and periodontal disease. To preserve the health of the underlying tooth and gums, brush your teeth at least twice daily, floss daily, and use mouthwash regularly.

Wear a night guard

While your dental crowns are designed and built to withstand the pressures of eating and chewing, they are vulnerable to the much higher sustained pressures exerted on your teeth when you grind your teeth at night. Grinding your teeth at night is a condition called sleep bruxism. Sleep bruxism can break dental crowns and damage other dental work. If you have the unhealthy and harmful habit of grinding your teeth or clenching your jaw as you sleep, speak to a dentist in Red Deer about fitting you with a mouthguard to protect the biting surfaces of your teeth and your crowns.

Avoid some harmful habits

Dental restorations such as crowns are designed for particular purposes. Tools, scissors, and things like that are designed for particular purposes. Those purposes are not the same! Mixing up those purposes can expose dental restorations — including dental crowns in Red Deer — to damage. Don’t use your teeth to hold hard objects. Don’t use your teeth to open bottles or packages. Don’t use your teeth to tear items. Don’t bite on pencils or ice. All of those harmful habits can cause damage to your dental crowns.

Don’t ignore a damaged crown

Older and/or lower quality crowns can be damaged. One common form of damage is chips coming off a porcelain crown. If your crown has sustained chips, make an appointment with a Red Deer dental clinic as soon as possible. In some cases, the dentist may be able to repair the crown using bonding resins. If the crown cannot be repaired, a dentist near you may recommend that it be replaced.

Ignoring a damaged crown will expose the underlying tooth to bacteria and food debris. Because the underlying tooth was altered to receive that crown by the removal of enamel, it is particularly vulnerable to tooth decay. Additionally, even minor damage to a crown can spread to the point that it will be structurally unstable and fail completely.

Keep up with your dental appointments

When we mentioned the importance of keeping up good oral hygiene habits earlier, we didn’t mention regular dental checkups. But you probably this was going to come up, right? Your dentist will carefully inspect all crowns and dental work for any signs of damage requiring attention. Beyond attending regular dental checkups, you should urgently contact a dentist near you if you experience any pain when you chew or bite. That may be the result of infection or decay affecting the underlying tooth, or changes in the height of your crown due to failed bonding of that crown to your tooth. Your dentist and their staff will take all the steps necessary to restore your crown and to protect your underlying tooth.

A dentist near you can explain the potential value of crowns to your personal situation. They’ll walk you through all the steps to obtaining crowns and ensuring they have a long lifespan, including by following these suggestions.

Request an Appointment with Our Red Deer Dental Office