Decay - Under My New Crowns?
Question:
Dr.Crapo: I’m getting close to my eightieth birthday. I’m in very good health and have a close group of friends and a family that enjoys getting together. I can’t remember the last time I had a cold, let alone any sickness. Is everything perfect – no! Two years ago, I had nine teeth crowned on my lower. I’ve got an upper denture that works fine. In the last six months, three of the crowns have broken off right at the gum. Then the other day, while waiting for a dental appointment, another one broke. I now have five teeth left. So, I showed up at the dental office only to be informed that the rest of my teeth have lots of decay under the crowns and they’ll follow suit in the next few months. I’ve always had decay but I thought crowning the teeth would prevent decay from getting to my teeth. The dentist said that because the crowns were either fitted above the gums or I’d had quite a bit of receding issues with my gums, that the decay had started where the teeth were exposed from the edges of the crowns down to the gum line and that I hadn’t done a very good job of getting the plaque off. I admit I thought I’d taken care of things with the crowns and wasn’t the best flosser or brusher. What to do now? He said I was heading for a denture but I know lowers just aren’t good. My husband is always complaining about his, so I don’t want to go that route. Would implants help? How do they work to keep teeth in?
Answer:
There are a number of ways implants will help. The first being they don’t decay. It’s still important to clean them, so that’ll have to be part of the solution, no matter what option you chose.
One solution is the placing of eight implants and connecting them with fixed bridges. This would be like having your own teeth – four on each side with four missing teeth in the front. This solution looks beautiful and is most natural. It is easy to clean and very functional. You get teeth the same day. The next solution is to place four or five implants and have bridgework constructed of dental resin and titanium. You get teeth the same day (i.e. your own teeth are removed, the implants placed and the teeth fitted – all in one day). This is a good solution because the teeth are fixed to the implants as well. The last solution has three implants placed and after a healing period of three to four months, a snap system is put in place, so a denture can be held in nicely. This option requires daily cleaning and denture removal.
If we can help, we’d like to. Call 778-410-2080 for a consultation.
Based on actual patient cases.