I need some advice. I needed a dental crown. My dentist suggested a CEREC crown because I could get it in just one appointment. I liked that idea and agreed. It ended up being a disaster. She said she had to use a generic image from the database because my tooth was in such bad shape. When she put it in, there were problems with the fit of the crown. It was sitting pretty high. She ground it down a bunch. Now it is shorter than the rest of my teeth. Whenever I bite down on anything it hurts a lot. All of this took close to four hours. She insists that it will start to feel normal in a few days. I still don’t have a resolution for this a week later. I looked on the CEREC website and according to them, this should only have taken a short time to put in and fit perfectly. Did she do something wrong?
Elaine
Dear Elaine,
I’m glad you wrote. Yes, your dentist did something wrong. In your place, I would ask for a refund and then just have a traditional porcelain crown made with another dentist, unless you want to give her another chance with the traditional crown. My suspicion is that she doesn’t understand how to run the CEREC crown software.
Her excuse that your tooth was in too bad of shape made me laugh. The whole point of needing a dental crown is because your tooth is in bad shape. The software, when used properly, can reconstruct what your tooth would look like and design a crown that would fit it perfectly.
You did not say where this tooth was, but if it is a front tooth, I would not recommend a same-day crown at all. These are milled from a single block of porcelain, which means when exposed to direct light the way your front teeth are, they will appear flat and fake. Traditional crowns use several different blocks of porcelain so that they can mimic the variations in natural tooth structure.
I don’t doubt that you plan on getting this fixed. However, for the sake of others, I want to mention the importance of making sure your bite is in alignment. With her having a dental crown that does not occlude with her other teeth properly, then it will throw off her bite. Left untreated, this can lead to TMJ Disorder.
As a side note, if you want to whiten your teeth, be sure to do it before you have your dental crown made. Once that is completed, bleaching will have no effect on it.
This blog is brought to you by Hoffman Estates Dentist Dr. William Becker.