I have had my eight dental crowns for about eleven years. One of them has had what my dentist called a craze line. She said they were common and that they are no big deal. One of them has developed a bit of a small crack where the craze lines were. I can see it and feel it. I know that dental crown will need to be replaced. My question is whether or not that is a dental emergency which will have to be taken care of right away or can it wait?
Olive
Dear Olive,
While you are correct that your dental crown will need to be replaced, it’s not a dental emergency, so you don’t have to run out and get it done right away. I would go ahead and schedule an appointment though, because at some point the dental crown will break.
One thing I would do is have your dentist look at all of the dental crowns while you are there, just to see the condition of the remainder of them. You’ve had them a while. They could be to where they will still last many years, but then, they could also be ready to have problems.
Depending on the results, you should start giving thought to whether you’d just rather replace them all at once or whether you want to just replace them one at a time, as needed. If you do them all at once, it has the benefit of you getting all the work over with and not having to worry about when the next one will go. However, that is a much greater cost up front for you.
If you do them one at a time, you can spread out the cost, but you will be making multiple trips to the dentist as they fail. There’s not a right or wrong answer here. It’s just a matter of what is more important to you.
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