Exercise Caution with Your Dental Crown Following These After-Care Tips

Dental crowns are restorations placed over your existing tooth fitting like a tooth cap. For example, suppose you have a dental crown over a tooth with a significant filling because of decay and without much tooth structure. In that case, dental crowns help restore the appearance, functionality, and strength of the tooth after you have it covered by dentists.

The dentist near me trims down your tooth from the tops and sides for considerable tooth structure removal to accommodate the dental cap over the tooth. The dentist also impressions the tooth for the dental laboratory to custom create your porcelain crown. Unfortunately, extensive tooth structure removal further weakens your tooth, leaving it prone to damages until the dental lab returns your permanent crown. In the interim, the dentist provides temporary crowns to protect your tooth as a stopgap solution.

Dental crowns need after-care to prolong their life span and to keep them in good condition as long as possible. They have a lifespan of over a decade, but there is no reason why you cannot extend their lifespan beyond the period by following the after-care tips we provide. Please learn how to care for dental crowns, temporary or permanent, by reading this article.

After-Care Tips for Temporary Crowns

When you have temporary crowns, you must ensure they remain in place without falling out until the dentist in Loveland removes them for placement of your permanent crown. However, please do not consider the temporary restoration as one that merely covers your tooth until the permanent crown is ready for placement. Instead, treat the crown respectfully and avoid activities that may dislodge it. Some precautions you must take are the following:

• Avoid chewing with the temporary crown using the other side of your mouth instead.
• Do not chew intricate and complex foods with the temporary placement.
• Refrain from having extremely sticky or chewy foods.
• Exercise care when flossing to ensure the dental floss does not get under the edge of the temporary crown.

You may need to adjust your behavior as you go along, especially when you notice any specific action or food puts pressure on the interim placement using common sense and self-awareness.

After-Care Tips for Your Permanent Crown

The dental laboratory requires about three weeks to create your dental crowns. After that, you can revisit the Loveland dentist for placement of the permanent restoration. The dentist starts the procedure by temporary crown removal to check the color fit of the permanent crown before fixing it over your damaged tooth permanently using special dental cement.

Dental crowns are incredibly durable and don’t need any special attention. However, after-care for your restoration begins immediately after the placement procedure. During an initial couple of days, you must continue to treat the crown like a temporary restoration by avoiding sticky, chewy, challenging, or complex foods that might dislodge the permanent crown. After two days, the crown fits snugly over your tooth, allowing you to start treating it like your natural tooth.

You might experience some sensitivity in your gums around the crown. However, the sensitivity usually subsides over the initial few weeks. Unfortunately, if the discomfort prolongs and does not seem to improve, consult your dentist on how you can manage the pain.

What Must You Avoid with Dental Crowns?

Permanent dental crowns enable you to use your tooth for eating and any other activities that you usually do with your mouth. However, depending on the location of the placement and the material you have chosen for the crown, you must exercise caution when biting down on intricate and complex foods, opening packages with your teeth, or any other activities that might damage the crown and dislodge it. After scheduling two appointments with the dentist to repair your damaged tooth and investing a considerable sum, would you like to show off another damage to your tooth soon after? We are confident you will think twice before indulging in any habits that may damage an expensive restoration. For example, if you grind and clench your teeth when sleeping, discuss the problem with the Loveland dentist, who can create a customized night guard for you to keep your teeth apart when sleeping.

Besides the above, you must follow your dentist’s recommended oral hygiene routine, including brushing and flossing and getting six-monthly checkups to keep your teeth and gums along with the crowned tooth healthy for long.

Fox Creek Dental by Espire Loveland provides dental crowns to restore or replace and strengthen damaged teeth to give a healthier smile. If you want more information on the after-care tips for dental crowns, please schedule an appointment with this facility right away.