A King And His Crown

As the hands of time wear on, more and more problems become apparent, even if you take good care of yourself. After the age of 40, even if you are very lucky and have lived a healthy life, you will need to start thinking about minor repairs. You may feel back, neck and or hip pain, you may have hair, skin and nails that aren’t quite as lustrous as they once were, and you may start to see some changes in your teeth as well. Even if your teeth are not decayed and you have no periodontitis or any other problems with your soft tissues, the wear and tear of eating day and day out may have taken a toll on the chompers. Eventually they do wear out, and then crowns need to be bought.

When to get crowns

Crowns replace the visible portion of teeth, the part that shine when you smile, chew when you eat, and help guide the tongue when you speak- the most important part of your teeth. Replacing teeth that are no longer quite there is important as teeth serve a functional purpose and not just an aesthetic one- and crowns will help in restoring that function. This can help prevent problems with the TMJ, the joint that connects the lower and upper jaws, can save other teeth that now have to do the wear and tear for the missing teeth, and can make the face look less sunken.

Types of crowns

Crowns can go atop existing teeth to augment them back to their former glory, or they can go atop dental implants, or they can even go atop just the gum, being attached to the teeth adjacent to the missing tooth. Which to get depends on a number of issues. Before getting crowns, you should ask yourself these questions:

1)      Is there still any tooth material left? If the answer is yes, then you need to know if it needs to be extracted or not, or if you can build on top of the remains of the tooth in question.

2)      Will you need a dental implant? If the tooth in question is missing, or if you need to get the stub extracted, you may find that you need a dental implant to restore proper chewing function and prevent further tooth loss.

3)      Are the teeth next to the tooth you want to replace healthy? If so, you may be able to use them to anchor your crown, which can save you a lot of money.

4)     Is the tooth visible when you smile? Depending on which tooth you are trying to replace, you may find that getting zirconium crowns, although more costly, is more worth it, as they look much more natural and do not start to show a black line near the gum either. With a molar tooth, this may not be an issue.

Ask your dentist what kind of crowns are available, and what his or her recommendations are regarding them.      

Tooth Fillings

The most basic procedure of reconstructive and conservative dentistry is the tooth filling. This is a procedure that almost everyone will have to undergo, or would have benefitted from having undergone in their lifetime. Most people in the world have at least one filling, but usually more. These relieving elementary procedures can be made of a number of different materials, can be done in a number of different ways. Below is a list of some interesting things you may like to know about tooth fillings and how they work.

When to get a filling

Fillings are a part of reconstructive dentistry, and come into the picture when a part of the tooth is already gone and beyond saving. Usually there will already be a hole on the tooth, or part of the tooth has already been collapsed, and the enamel has been breached. When this breach is minor and most of the tooth is still intact and the deeper structures are untouched, a filling is in order. If the decay seeps deeper, then a root canal treatment will eventually become necessary. A filling may also become necessary if part of the tooth breaks off even when there is no decay involved; an accident can also break a tooth, and the best way to make sure that the remainder of the tooth structure remains intact and does not decay is to get the broken part plugged up with a tooth filling.

Types of tooth fillings

Most dental practices today have just one kind of tooth filling; tooth coloured or “white” composite gradia fillings. These fillings are made of an artificial resin, and harden over time to fill out the hole that they are placed in. In the past amalgam fillings were used, which are a mix of silver, aluminium and mercury. These fillings are very poor quality, they leach mercury into the system which is not good for it, and in many EU countries this kind of filling is now illegal. It is still used all over the world in many places, but the Minamata convention that seeks to limit the use of mercury and eventually completely stop using it has made that much more difficult.

Prevention

The view of modern medicine is that the best way to fight an illness sis by preventing it from occurring in the first place. This is no different with dentistry. The best way to prevent a tooth filling is to brush at least twice a day, use dental floss on all of your teeth and to make use of mouthwash as well. Aside from these elementary methods, a visit to your dentist every six months for a deep cleaning and a status check to see that nothing is wrong is absolutely essential to preventing more serious problems from occurring.