Question:
I just had a new porcelain crown installed (tooth #10) After it's
permenantly cemented I noticed that the tooth is significantly shorter
than its symmetrical counterpart, creating a visible gap between the
upper and lower teeth, so of course I want it redone. Is there a
risk-free way of removing a permenantly cemented crown? My dentist says
that since the tooth inside is weak (has a root canal) there is a big
risk of breaking it while trying to cut the crown. How good is the
Richwil crown removal stuff?
Answer:
Richwill is probably less risky than most other commonly used methods.
But in my experience it mostly doesn't work, esp. with anterior crowns.
There is no risk-free method, either for the crown or the tooth. But
any method that tries to take the crown off in the long axis of the
tooth will be less likely to fracture the tooth.
I have never had any breakage of teeth removing crowns by cutting a slot
completely through the crown facial to lingual and using a crown
splitter to pop it off.
I have had a couple fracture using a traditional crown puller.
An anterior crown should not be permanently cemented until the esthetics are checked by both the patient and the dentist
Be careful Dartos or your response will be applied to some other post in
some other place by some bizarre dental groupie.
Why not just cut it off with a score in the long axis on the labial
surface? You go down to the dentin, insert an elevator and try to crack
it off. If it doesn't break, I'd make a horizontal score (mesio distal
and then try opening from the axial score again.
If this crown has a zircon reinforcement in it, I guess this wouldn't
work.
I would have to live
with it then. It doesn't look horrible as is, it just bothers me that
I'm going to pay a thousand dollars for something that I will hate
every time I look in the mirror. My dentist has been advicing not to
try to remove it because of the risk of damaging the tooth, but I was
thinking he's exaggerating because he's going to have to pay for the
new tooth. After all, it's not my fault that the tooth is short
