8 things you can do to reduce your risk of ever needing a dental crown. –

There are good reasons to hope that you’ll never need a crown.

A tooth must be trimmed down substantially when a crown is placed.

Crowns are an important type of restoration. And when one is needed, no other kind of dental work fully provides the same level of service. Possible alternatives.

So if ever needing one (or getting another one on another tooth) can be avoided altogether, clearly that makes the better plan.

8 tips and suggestions that can help to minimize your chances of ever needing a dental crown placed.

Here’s an outline of things you can do, or choices you can make, that can significantly help to reduce your risk of ever needing to have a tooth capped.

A) Be proactive in minimizing the amount of damage your teeth experience.

One of the primary functions of placing a dental crown is to create a strengthening effect for teeth. Here’s how.

Background

In cases where a tooth has been severely damaged (like by extensive decay or having a substantial portion fracture off), just placing a filling in the resulting void may not be able to provide the level of strengthening (protection from future breakage) that it really requires.

Because a crown fully covers over its underlying tooth, it creates a much stronger, durable and therefore lasting repair than a large filling can.

What can you do so you end up just needing a filling instead of a crown?

Any steps you take that help to limit the amount of damage your tooth experiences may help you to avoid the need of having it capped. Toward that goal, consider the following suggestions.

1) Avoid excessively hard foods or excessive food habits.

Bad luck vs. negligence.

Anyone can have a tooth break due to an accident, like when a hamburger contains a sliver of bone or an olive unexpectedly still has its pit.

But experiencing that type of bad luck is entirely different from being careless about the types of food you eat or the way you consume them.

Reduce your risk for ever needing a crown by monitoring your food habits.

Popcorn, hard pretzels or baguettes, frozen candy bars, hard candies and biting on ice are all items frequently associated with tooth breakage and the resulting need for crown placement.

But really, any hard or crunchy food that’s difficult to bite, chew or requires crushing should be either limited or monitored closely when consumed. Doing so seems a relatively small price to pay for dental serenity.

What you experience on a daily basis is a factor.

While it can be that just a single event has harmed your tooth, don’t overlook the fact that continued harsh treatment over time can create a cumulative effect.

Small cracks tend to become larger ones. And as they do they place your tooth at greater and greater risk for experiencing severe damage, and the subsequent need for crown placement.

What’s normal for you may not be healthy for your teeth.

Another issue that should be pointed out is that the types of foods that a person tends to eat are often influenced by their ethnicity and cultural habits.

▲ Section references – Marchan

2) Pay attention to tooth clenching.

It’s not just a harmless activity.

Tooth clenching and grinding (dentist refer to this habit as bruxism) can without a doubt result in breakage and the ultimate need of having your tooth capped.

You may not realize how potentially damaging this habit can be. Here are some statistics:

• During the course of normal dental activity (chewing, swallowing) a person’s upper and lower teeth will come into contact. But this usually just involves a force of 25 pounds of pressure (or much less). And over the course of a day, a total contact time of only about 20 minutes.
• When people clench their teeth, the duration is frequently far longer than just 20 minutes. And the amount of force involved can be on the order of 200 to 300 pounds of pressure, which is more than enough to fracture off a weakened tooth cusp or a susceptible tooth/filling complex.

▲ Section references – James, Stefanac

Things you can do to keep your bruxism in check and thus reduce your risk of ever needing a crown.

• Teeth clenching is often a response to stress. So anything you can do to reduce your stress levels will be beneficial for your teeth too. (Of course, who wouldn’t be attempting to do this anyway?)
• During waking hours, tooth clenching is a subconscious habit that, at least in theory, you should be able to control. (Admittedly however, in real life this may be very difficult for a person to fully achieve.)

  Pay attention to what you’re doing and don’t. Try placing a bit of your tongue between your teeth as help or a reminder. Holding your tongue against the roof of your mouth will help to prop your teeth apart. Remember, any period of time when you can avoid bruxing is a positive event for your teeth.

• If you clench your teeth in your sleep, you’ll need to wear a nightguard. These appliances provide protection by redistributing the forces you create out over all of your teeth.

3) Protect your teeth from sporting accidents.

People who participate in sports activities run the risk of experiencing a traumatic dental event. Possibly even one that necessitates the placement of a crown.

The simple statistics are:

• During any one season, an athlete runs a 1 in 10 chance of experiencing some type of facial or dental injury.
• Over the course of their lifetime, a person’s risk for experiencing this type of event runs on the order of 45%.

Of course, not all tooth injuries will result in the need for crown placement. But it is safe to say that in many of the cases that do, the simple act of wearing a sports mouthguard could have prevented that need.

Who’s at risk?

It’s easy enough to state that anyone who participates in essentially any kind of sporting activity should wear some sort of mouth protection. But admittedly, some types of activities place the athlete at far greater risk than others.

▲ Section references – Knowlton

4) Have all of your dental problems tended to promptly.

Without a doubt the saying “a stitch in time saves nine” applies to most dental issues, and especially many of those that ultimately result in the need for crown placement. And that means that you can help to avoid that outcome simply by having your dentist tend to your dental problems in a timely fashion.

• Tooth decay always starts as a small lesion that then grows in size over months, and possibly even years. How long cavities take.

  Situations where a cavity has finally reached a size where a crown is now the only repair option could have likely been avoided at some point just by placing a very small filling.

• Crowns are often needed to rebuild and strengthen teeth that have been hollowed out during root canal treatment. When is one required?

  In many cases, a person’s need for root canal work is due to the damage caused by slowly advancing decay. Tending to this underlying problem early on could totally prevent the need for this type of work.

B) Tips about keeping tooth wear in check.

Another important function of crown placement is to rebuild and return teeth to their original shape (or at least a more normal form).

And even though some amount of tooth wear and tear is normal, keeping it to a minimum will help to reduce your chances of ever requiring a crown.

1) Control your bruxism.

As mentioned above, the term bruxism refers to a habit of tooth clenching and grinding. And just as the forces associated with clenching can be excessive (discussed above), so can the amount of wear that occurs from prolonged grinding.

What tends to take place.

While tooth enamel is exceedingly hard, it can’t withstand the constant tooth-to-tooth contact associated with teeth grinding. And as a result, those aspects of a tooth in contact with the surfaces of opposing teeth will wear, possibly extensively.

It’s important to understand that the wear typically isn’t isolated to just one or a few teeth. Instead, usually all (or at least most) of the person’s teeth are affected, although clearly some may experience more wear than others.

Signs and symptoms.

• A problem that occurs with back teeth is that they become shorter, and as a result, the person’s jaws come together more so when they close. This can result in TMJ (jaw joint) problems. It also gives the person’s face a “collapsed” (over closed) appearance.
• Another common problem associated with worn back teeth is their increased sensitivity to hot and cold foods and beverages (due to the fact that their enamel layer has been worn thin or completely off).

These teeth have excessive wear due to bruxism.

• With front teeth, the wear can be excessive too, especially on their biting edge. This effect frequently gives the person a ragged (see picture above) or “aged” look.

Why preventing excessive tooth wear is so important.

When a single tooth breaks, repairing that event usually just requires placing a crown on that tooth.

In comparison, rebuilding teeth damaged as a result of bruxism generally requires placing crowns on all of them during the same restoration process. (Because the teeth have worn down as a unit, they must be repaired as a unit too. They can’t each be built up taller one procedure at a time.) And that makes the nature of the process more extensive, and more expensive.

▲ Section references – Mengatto

2) Avoid other causes of tooth wear.

Beyond tooth grinding it’s not uncommon for a person to have other habits, possibly ones that are obvious but paid little attention to, that over time result in pronounced tooth damage. As examples:

• A hard object such as a smoking pipe or ink pen might be held in a favorite location that over time causes the wear of the four (2 upper, 2 lower) or more teeth that are used to grasp it.
• In the same way but possibly on a more localized basis, smaller objects may be held between a person’s teeth (bobby pins, sewing pins, needles) that over time cause pronounced tooth wear or notching.

C) Tips about choosing the right kind of restorations for your teeth initially.

There may be times when your dentist feels you have more than one option when it comes to repairing your tooth. If so, one prime consideration should be which can be expected to provide the longest, most predictable service.

The underlying problem with replacing dental restorations.

1. Any time a dental restoration must be replaced, its successor will be larger, or in some way more involved, than its predecessor.
2. And after several replacements have been made, enough tooth structure may have been lost (much possibly just due to the repair process itself) that a crown is finally required.
3. By choosing the kind of dental work initially that provides the most lasting service, the tooth’s eventual need for a crown might be totally avoided.

Example scenarios.

Stained and deteriorated dental bonding.

• Issues with front teeth – The appearance of front teeth that have extensive cosmetic imperfections can sometimes be improved by either placing dental bonding or a porcelain veneer.

  Porcelain veneers characteristically won’t stain and deteriorate like bonding will tend to do Why?. And especially in the case where stain accumulation is likely to be a problem for the person (discussed below), choosing a porcelain veneer might make the better choice.

  (The longer-lasting veneer may help to preserve tooth structure, and therefore the ultimate need for a crown, by way of reducing the number of times the restoration will need to be replaced.)

• Issues with back teeth – Patients are often attracted to the idea of having white fillings placed in their back teeth instead of silver (dental amalgam) ones. And for comparatively smaller restorations this possibly makes a suitable choice.

  But generally speaking, amalgam (metal) fillings likely last longer The proof.. So choosing the less esthetic yet more durable choice may help you to avoid the need for a dental crown later on (by way of requiring less frequent replacement).

▲ Section references – Stefanac

D) Tips about helping the dental work you do have last as long as possible.

In the same vein as that just discussed, anything you can do to help to prevent the need for replacing your existing dental work may help you to avoid the need for a crown later on.

Steps you can take to help your dental work last as long as possible.

• Recurrent decay (new decay formation at the edge of an existing filling) is a common reason for restoration replacement. Diligent brushing and flossing How to. How not to. along with the use of a good fluoride toothpaste How to pick one. is usually the cornerstone of making your dental work last, and help to prevent the need for a crown later on.
• Staining alone might be the sole reason why white fillings on front teeth need to be repeatedly replaced. If so, taking minor precautions when consuming chromogenic agents What are they? could go a long way toward preventing the eventual need for a crown.