Posted by writeradmin
I had a dental crown placed and it has fallen out five different times in just a few months. The first three times I went to the dentist that made the crown, but by the fourth time I lost confidence in that dentist and went to another one. He told me my other dentist was probably using the wrong cement, so he used a different one. This one has fallen out as well. Now he’s saying he’ll need to make me a new crown in order to fix the problem. At this point, I am not sure that I trust either of them. As this is my first dental crown, I do not know if this is typical and too be expected. However, I haven’t seen a bunch of people with dental work falling out of their mouth, so I am assuming it is not. What do I do at this point?
Pam
Dear Pam,
No, this is not typical for dental crowns. In fact, the opposite. Most dentists will go their entire careers without having even a single crown fall off.
Typically, there are two reasons for a dental crown to fall out. The first is the bonding cement is not strong enough. However, the second reason tends to have more of an impact. That is the shape of the tooth preparation. If there is only a slight taper, then even a weaker cement will keep it in. On the other hand, if a tooth is overly tapered then not even the strongest cement will keep it in.
My suspicion is that your dental crown is overly tapered. So, should you let the second dentist re-do your crown? I don’t think so. He should have realized the problem had more to do with the taper than anything else.
I would go to a completly different dentist. I doubt you will have that problem again, but make sure you check their reviews. If you can’t find a dentist who can do a basic dental crown I would be pretty shocked.
Also, you are entitled to a refund from the first dentist. A basic expecation of dental work is that it will stay in.
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