Patients have always believed that any dentistry that was done for them should last a lifetime. Intellectually we should know better because there is NOTHING that we use every day will last for an entire lifetime. We replace cars costing $50,000 every four or five years or we redo our kitchens for prices of $35,000 and up...But a $1300 crown should last 50 years? Not possible.
My patient of 35 years asked me to replace his 20 year old veneers that I placed and to also replace the porcelain fused to gold crown that was placed almost 30 years ago. The front teeth had BONDED veneers while the dark tooth on the left had a CEMENTED crown . The front teeth had no stains or decay while the small dark tooth was totally destroyed by tooth decay. Don't worry...I was able to save this tooth.
The lesson that both you and I have to learn from this is that we probably should think about replacing many of those CEMENTED crowns that I or any other dentist fabricated for you 25 years ago.
This is NOT the first time that I have seen this. In fact EVERY tooth with an old crown looks identical to this brown tooth and sometimes the tooth cannot be saved.
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