Dental crowns are ceramic or porcelain, which makes them durable. Porcelain crowns are even harder than your natural teeth. This means they may last a decade or more if you care for your crowns. In some cases, dental crowns can last much longer than that. How long your new dental crown lasts depends on how well you care for it.
Here are some tips to help you care for your new dental crown.
Be wary of sticky or hard foods
Since crowns are porcelain caps that encapsulate teeth, you can dislodge them if you apply enough force. This is why you should chew sticky and hard foods with care. Sticky foods can pull dental crowns loose. And hard foods can cause dental crowns to break off if enough pressure is present when chewing. Try to distribute the chewing forces evenly if you chew hard or sticky foods.
Wear a nightguard if you grind your teeth
Nocturnal grinding or bruxism puts great pressure on natural teeth and dental crowns. Since you can't control how much force you exert while grinding in your sleep, your dental crown may come under tremendous pressure, which could break it.
To protect your new crown, have a dentist make a nightguard for your mouth. The mouthguard will stop your teeth from grinding together while you sleep.
Wear a mouthguard for sports
You can knock a dental crown loose during a collision while playing sports. So a good precaution to take is to wear a good quality mouthguard while taking part in sports activities. Your dentist can create a mouthguard that fits your mouth snugly.
Floss around your dental crown regularly
Plaque, which is a sticky film that consists of bacteria and food debris, builds up along the margin of dental crowns where they meet the gum tissue. The bacteria in plaque can invade the spaces between a crown and the gum line. If this happens, decay could occur along the margin and even under the crown. To keep plaque from building up, floss the margins of your dental crowns.
Eliminate bad oral habits
Some oral habits that involve chewing on foreign objects like pens and ice are damaging to dental crowns. If you have just gotten a dental crown, stop harmful dental habits that involve chewing on hard objects. Regularly chewing pens, ice, and fingernails will weaken your dental crown over time, which could cause it to come loose. Stop harmful oral habits before they damage your crown.
Contact your dentist to learn more about dental crowns.
Share27 May 2022
My son was outside playing with some friends when he accidentally fell down and hit his mouth on the sidewalk. The fall knocked out his front tooth, so I immediately placed the tooth in a small jar and added some milk. I rushed my son to the dental clinic and the dentist immediately took us into the examination room. The dentist placed the tooth back into the socket and saved it. My name is Beverly Tillman and thanks to the quick work of the dentist, my son didn't lose his tooth. Since this was a scary time for me and my son, I wanted to write this blog as a source of information for other parents who are facing a dental emergency. First of all, don't panic and get to your dentist as soon as possible. I hope this blog will help to answer your questions about dental emergencies.