Wellness

[Deree]

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@phoenixbrd wrote:

@RedTop   that is exactly my main concern...what if the pulp is just as rotten as the rest of the tooth.....we will have spent 15K, my husband will have endured a lot of pain, and he will then be faced with the dentures he was trying to avoid.  This is a source of unrest for me, but my husband doesn't even want to discuss at this point. Thank you for your feedback.

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You may have the opinion that your husband's teeth are rotting but only your dentist knows if your husband's teeth are viable enough to handle getting crowns.  If you don't know the dentist or necessarily trust him I'd try to get a second opinion.  And always ask questions and have your concerns addressed by your dentist.  Are the roots of my teeth and the bone level healthy enough to get crowns?  Can they possibly fail? All my back teeth are crowned in gold no less because they were done decades ago.  I had lots of cavities as a child so i chose to have my back teeth restored when I hit my 20s.  You could also say my teeth were rotting from the cavities but they were perfectly healthy enough along with the bone in my jaw to get crowns.  Even back then the procedure was not bad at all just time consuming.  It must be a whole lot easier these days.

Edited:  Glad to hear the procedure went well!

[Drythe]

@phoenixbrd 

Thank you for the follow up.  I’m happy your DH did well, and happy you are more at ease.  It is so scary when they go through something isn’t it?  

I would much rather it was me than to have my DH be in pain.

Please keep us posted.  

[Mindy D]

Although no dental restoration lasts forever, the average lifespan of a crown is around 10 years. While this is considered comparatively favorable to direct restorations, they can actually last up to the life of the patient (50 years or more) with proper care.

From Wikipedia

[phoenixbrd]

@Drythe  It is a challenge because due to prior surgeries, he lives his life in pain. The good news....  we have found a wonderful dentist who is not only competent, but very gentle.   As always, thank you for your kind words.

[phoenixbrd]

@Mindy D   Thanks...that was a major consideration for us because this will be a major investment in his health and one of the kind posters here said her crowns have lasted (I believe) 30 years, but she spends an hour a day on teeth health.  We are waterpicking, flossing, and I'm purchasing Sonicare Diamond Bluetooth brushes that have plaque removing brush heads and technology that tells you if you are missing brushing an area in your mouth (amazing!).  We are consciously working on keeping those crowns for life!  So I'm hoping we are home free, just have a lot of work ahead of us...but he had 7 prepared for the crowns already, so we are on our way to him keeping his teeth in his mouth which makes him happy!

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@Mindy D wrote:

Although no dental restoration lasts forever, the average lifespan of a crown is around 10 years. While this is considered comparatively favorable to direct restorations, they can actually last up to the life of the patient (50 years or more) with proper care.

From Wikipedia

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[Mothertrucker]

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@artisto wrote:

Have you checked into dental implants?

I have one dental implant.

Although they are pricey..they are "permanent"

As permanent as anything in this life can be.

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Not neccessarily- I had a total of 12 implants  beginning about 15 years ago..after about 3 years, they began to fail, loosening and falling out..Dentist replaced them..those also failed..

They said they had never seen anything like it

Evidently, I had not enough bone (even after the all the bone grafts and cadaver bone etc) to support the implants..

Hard to say how MUCH I spent over the course of time- over $40K out of my own pocket...My dentist felt horrible and didnt even charge me for most of the "second wave" as they tried (in vain) to replace them..

Also, crowns are definitely not forever- I have had to have teeth pulled that had been root canaled and crowned...

By all means, try, if you can, to save what you have..problem is, once there is bone loss (often  after teeth have been pulled and are missing for a while) nothng really helps, and as I found out, not EVERYONE is a good candidate for certain procedures, and sometimes it even surprises the professionals...in my case, they still do not know why mine failed..I have some unusual health conditions, but am generally very

healthy, it seems like I was "the perfect storm", sadly...

..andin theend, you may wind up with a denture or partial ANYWAY..

[World Traveler]

It looks like I am going to have a lot of dental work coming up. Probably due to my life-long love of chocolate. 

[phoenixbrd]

Wish you the best World Traveler...hope it is not so extensive that you can't indulge in your chocolates from time to time!

[CatsyCline]

If your husband does not want implants would look into having a fixed bridge(s)  made on the upper molars rather than all crowns.  He can do crowns on the front teeth.  not sure about lowers i still have all my lower teeth.

i've had a 4 unit fixed bridge in place for 30 yrs on my upper right molars and a 3 unit bridge on my left uppers  for 20 yrs.   my gums are good and there is no loss of margin. i had to have a root canal recently under one of the live anchor teeth and they just drilled through that crown no problem.    btw 7k is a bargain for all that dental work now i think my 30yr bridge cost 6k (all covered by insurance at the time)

[kismet]

I have to agree that crowns don't last and years ago I never asked.  I have a lot of crowns and two implants.  If I were to do it all over again I would of gotten implants to secure dentures and be done with it.  Crowned teeth need root canals and if you need one you will probably lose the crown and need a new crown or have it pulled because of a fractured root of the tooth.  Happened to me but the root canals were done probably 20 years ago.  I had a front side crown that got an infection and had a root canal. Thought okay the beautiful crown is saved.  2 years later the tooth breaks and now I have a post with a new crown, not as nice as what I had but my old dentist retired so had it done by a good dentist but no one did my crowns like the older dentist that put 4 on 20 years ago.  I think after time you just get tired of dental work.  I asked my dentist how do people today get the implants and teeth in one day like the commericals say.  He said in 10 years they will be sorry having it done like that.  I know I had to wait 3 months to get my crown on my implant.  Luckily it was in the back on the side so didn't show much.  I had no dental insurance so had to pay for everything.  It was worth it.  My husband had beautiful teeth and got gum disease.  Lost his uppers and just had some bottom teeth pulled.  I told him to get a few implants to hold dentures and he said he's tired of dental work too.  He's getting dentures.  My dentist teaches one day a week at the local university so he should know what he's talking about.  My older dentist put some transparency in my crowns like real teeth.  It's the lab that makes a difference and the cost.