Understanding Crown Attachment

When we put crowns on teeth, we’ve got the tooth and we’ve got the crown, and we use a dental cement to bond that crown into place. Over time, sometimes that dental cement can erode and wear away—especially some of the older cements—and eventually the forces in your mouth, whether from chewing something with a lot of suction or a lot of stickiness, can overwhelm that cement strength.

If you have a crown come off and you come into your dental office and the tooth underneath is still healthy and the crown is still intact, a lot of times it’s just as simple as cleaning the crown out and re-cementing it back in place. No problem—go back on with your day and everything is like it was before.

When a Crown No Longer Fits

The second reason that a crown will come off is because it no longer fits intimately with the shape of the tooth as it was originally made. Usually, the reason for that is either breakdown of the tooth or decay that has crept underneath the tooth and caused it to no longer be the same shape it was when that crown was made.

In this situation, a lot of times the patient will come into the office and part of the actual tooth is inside the crown. When that happens, even though we may be able to clean out the crown and make it fit back over the remaining tooth, that’s not an ideal situation because the tooth is no longer intimately protected by the crown, and it’s going to debond and cause problems down the road. In that case, the appropriate treatment is to remove any unhealthy tooth structure, modify the existing tooth, and make a new crown to protect the tooth going forward.

Habits That Cause Crowns to Fail

Those are the two main dental reasons that crowns fail. Now, there is a third kind of subcategory, which is when teeth are treated in a way they’re not designed for. If there’s enough healthy tooth there for the crown to bond on, generally speaking, a crown’s not just going to debond unless it’s something unfortunate that the patient is doing at home—putting forces on the crown that it wasn’t designed to handle.

Whether that’s clenching, chewing on ice, or eating really sticky, hard things that actually grab onto the surface of the tooth structure, habits like biting things with your nails or trying to open things with your mouth may be convenient, but they can overwhelm the capacity of those crowns. That can lead to the crown breaking or coming off entirely.

Reflexiones finales

If you’re in a situation where you’re worried about getting crowns or about the crowns you have coming off, give us a call or reach out. I’d love to have you come in so I can take a look and reassure you that everything’s going to be okay.

I’m Dr. Brett Langston, prosthodontist and owner of Dental Implant Aesthetic Specialists here in Brookhaven, Georgia, and I’m here to help you watch your mouth.