Question:
I have a situation maybe you can help with.
On tooth number 18 I have a beautifull crown with a "tattoo" of a yellow
rose on it. On tooth number 19 I have a crown with the porcelain
shearred off the buccal. This looks terrible next to my wonderful
tattoo. Now, granted, no one sees my tattoo unless I walk around with
my lip pulled all the way back, but, we are going to the Chicago
Mid-winter meeting in a few weeks and I hope to find the booth with the
intra oral camera's to get a pix of my tattoo crown. (I know, isn't
this pathetic, but...)
Now, How can we repair the porcelain of the tooth mesial to my 8th
wonder so that I don't look like a poor deprived dental office employee
:)
Also, why does that happen? I have another crown on the other side that
it happened to also. Is there a problem in the processing of the
porcelain? And, is there a lab out there that does Tattoo's on teeth.
Mine was done about 8-10 years ago by a guy at Root Dental Lab in KS,
and he is not there anymore.
Answer:
there are a lot of dental companies who offer special porcelain repair
kits (for instance Voco, Kerr, Vivadent...). You should look for them in
dental catalogs or ask your local dental depot. The procedure works in
the same way like a composite filling: first creating rough surface,
next etching, bonding, opac liner and finally composite restoration with
different colours to select.
I have done some repairs on porcelain crowns in that way and it works
quite well so far. The reason for porcelain fracture may be found in too
high occlusion forces (biting on hard food or crown is just too high) or
probably due to mistakes made in dental lab during the manufacture.
I should probably lay off the "Laffy Taffy" (banana!).
I'll have my DDS try that. And I'll have my internet studio friend help
me send a pix
It is not unusual for the porcelain to fracture off of crowns...you may
have caught something a little too crunchy on it and fractured it just as you
may have if it were a natural tooth.
A couple of options that I know of would be...
1. try to remove the entire crown with Richwells crown and bridge remover
candy...sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. If it does, then you can
send the crown to your local lab and have them redo the porcelain, and re-seat
it.
2. There are several composite materials in conjunction with a good bonding
adhesive system that can temporarily repair the broken area, making it
necessary to be careful in chewing, but would be more esthetically pleasing
when you have the photos taken.
By the way...an intra-oral camera in the practice is terrific! It has
been very helpful in case presentations, as well effective in cutting down the
amount of correspondence necessary in dealing with the insurance companies.
They DO seem to loose a lot of x-rays, and frequently don't seem to know how to
read the ones they get! Just my opinion...Hope this helps and have fun at the
meetings. We are attending the Hinnman meetings in Atlanta the middle of March
for the umpteenth time...we always enjoy them.
