Does it surprise you to hear a holistic dentist with more than 25 years experience tell you to avoid dental crowns and caps? After all, most dentists love to cap teeth. Capped teeth are believed by most to be the ultimate dental restoration. So how could a dentist be telling you to avoid caps and crowns?
Most adults are familiar with the following scenario:
* You get a cavity in a tooth
* Your tooth doctor restores the decay with a filling รข€¦ dental amalgam or maybe composite resin
* After a while the restoration fails or the tooth fractures
* A cap (ceramic, metal or maybe porcelain fused to metal) is now installed
* The procedure of capping the tooth destroys the tooth's nerve
* Dead nerves hurt an must be treated by having a root canal or perhaps an extraction
The tooth nerve often dies as a consequence of the traumatic and aggressive crown procedure. To crown a tooth, the dentist must grind away all of the enamel and a significant amount of the dentin that makes up the inner tooth core. Studies have shown that as many as 15% of crowned teeth will experience complications serious enough to kill the tooth nerve. If you're lucky enough to dodge the root canal / extraction bullet, you may think you've won the battle.
Even though caps are often called "permanent", they don't last forever. In fact, the average life-span for a crown is actually around 10 years. Almost all dental insurance companies will pay to replace a new cap when it fails after only 5 years. Most dental customers cannot understand how the crown can decay ... how can something composed of porcelain or metal get a cavity? No one wants to fork out another large chunk of capital to re-fix the tooth that they believed had been restored in a permanent way.
When trying to explain the reasons why your tooth has to be fixed again, your dentist may perhaps express things like: "nothing will last forever" or "the oral cavity is a really hostile environment". He / She may even pass the blame over to you by implying that substandard oral hygiene and bacterial plaque at the gum line was the reason the crown has failed. The only problem with this conclusion is this: assuming lousy oral hygiene was to blame, every one of your teeth should be decayed ... not just the single crowned tooth.
Is it just me or is does this story seem full of holes? I'll spare you from the technical mumbo gumbo, but in reality crowns are destined to fail over time. Under normal biting pressure, natural teeth bend and flex ... crowns, made from rigid materials such as ceramic and metal, don't flex like a tooth. So, every occasion you bite your teeth together, the tooth attempts to flex along the gum line, but it's restrained because of the circular encasing effect of the cap.
So each time you chew, the ensuing tug-of-war generates tension and strain at the gum-line, causing the seal between the tooth and cap to weaken. In the absence of a proper seal, harmful bacteria can get in between the tooth and crown--causing decay. The dentist will likely refer to this as a leaking crown. You call it a total bummer!
There's a small division of dental art known as biomimetic dentistry that recognizes and tackles the issue of crown leakage. To start with, biomimetic practitioners rarely if ever install crowns on teeth. Second of all, these dentists never place unbending, inflexible materials at the gum-line when rebuilding your teeth. By simply restoring your teeth with techniques that mimic nature, leaking crowns and "surprise root canal treatments" are generally prevented.
Biomimetic dental procedures are perfect alternatives to caps, mimic the un-restored teeth under function, provide very long-lasting dental treatments and significantly lessen the need for root canal treatment.
Most adults are familiar with the following scenario:
* You get a cavity in a tooth
* Your tooth doctor restores the decay with a filling รข€¦ dental amalgam or maybe composite resin
* After a while the restoration fails or the tooth fractures
* A cap (ceramic, metal or maybe porcelain fused to metal) is now installed
* The procedure of capping the tooth destroys the tooth's nerve
* Dead nerves hurt an must be treated by having a root canal or perhaps an extraction
The tooth nerve often dies as a consequence of the traumatic and aggressive crown procedure. To crown a tooth, the dentist must grind away all of the enamel and a significant amount of the dentin that makes up the inner tooth core. Studies have shown that as many as 15% of crowned teeth will experience complications serious enough to kill the tooth nerve. If you're lucky enough to dodge the root canal / extraction bullet, you may think you've won the battle.
Even though caps are often called "permanent", they don't last forever. In fact, the average life-span for a crown is actually around 10 years. Almost all dental insurance companies will pay to replace a new cap when it fails after only 5 years. Most dental customers cannot understand how the crown can decay ... how can something composed of porcelain or metal get a cavity? No one wants to fork out another large chunk of capital to re-fix the tooth that they believed had been restored in a permanent way.
When trying to explain the reasons why your tooth has to be fixed again, your dentist may perhaps express things like: "nothing will last forever" or "the oral cavity is a really hostile environment". He / She may even pass the blame over to you by implying that substandard oral hygiene and bacterial plaque at the gum line was the reason the crown has failed. The only problem with this conclusion is this: assuming lousy oral hygiene was to blame, every one of your teeth should be decayed ... not just the single crowned tooth.
Is it just me or is does this story seem full of holes? I'll spare you from the technical mumbo gumbo, but in reality crowns are destined to fail over time. Under normal biting pressure, natural teeth bend and flex ... crowns, made from rigid materials such as ceramic and metal, don't flex like a tooth. So, every occasion you bite your teeth together, the tooth attempts to flex along the gum line, but it's restrained because of the circular encasing effect of the cap.
So each time you chew, the ensuing tug-of-war generates tension and strain at the gum-line, causing the seal between the tooth and cap to weaken. In the absence of a proper seal, harmful bacteria can get in between the tooth and crown--causing decay. The dentist will likely refer to this as a leaking crown. You call it a total bummer!
There's a small division of dental art known as biomimetic dentistry that recognizes and tackles the issue of crown leakage. To start with, biomimetic practitioners rarely if ever install crowns on teeth. Second of all, these dentists never place unbending, inflexible materials at the gum-line when rebuilding your teeth. By simply restoring your teeth with techniques that mimic nature, leaking crowns and "surprise root canal treatments" are generally prevented.
Biomimetic dental procedures are perfect alternatives to caps, mimic the un-restored teeth under function, provide very long-lasting dental treatments and significantly lessen the need for root canal treatment.
About the Author:
Curt Eastin DDS, ND is a holistic dentist and a naturopathic physician. He earned his doctorates at the University of Washington School of Dentistry and the National College of Naturopathic Medicine. His dental website is a rich resource for holistic dentistry.
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