Problem with a Dental Crown

Posted by writeradmin

I have a dental crown on an upper molar and it is really causing problems with the lower tooth. I’m thinking it needs to be smaller because it is hitting the other tooth in a way that hurts. I spoke to my dentist about it and he said give it time I just needed to get used to it. It’s been three weeks and it still hurts. How long should it take?

Amanda

Dear Amanda,

I’m going to give a way to decode dental speak. When a dentist says, “Give it time. You just need to get used to it.” What he or she is really saying is, “I have no idea how to solve this and I hope by putting them off they will no longer bug me.” Here’s the problem with that. This is a serious issue that will not only leave you in pain, but if not handled correctly, can throw off your bite and lead to TMJ Disorder. When your crown is correctly placed, you should not feel it at all, even when you’re eating.

There are solutions, however, your dentist may not know the proper way to do that. You can ask them to redo the crown, but they need to be willing to place it provisionally first with a temporary try in paste. If it doesn’t feel completely natural, including when you bite down, then do not allow your dentist to bond the crown in. If he is unwilling to agree to that then he or she should give you a complete refund because you are going to need to go elsewhere to get it redone.

How the upper and lower teeth come together is called occlusion and very important. Unfortunately, it is also takes advanced studies to know how those teeth should occlude together. There are post-doctoral institutes that train dentists in these procedures and issues:

• The Pankey Institute
• The Las Vegas Institute for Advanced Dental Studies
• The Spear Institute
• The Dawson Academy

You will need a dentist who was trained in one of these organizations to help you.

This blog is brought to you by Arnold, MD Dentist Dr. Meredith Esposito.