Dental crowns breaking multiple times in less than a year - is there a sturdier option?

Question

I had dental reconstruction of my bite with all crowns placed. I had an overbite that kept chipping my front teeth as I aged. Since the new crowns we place I have had the upper incisors and left canine break now on the 7th time in less than a year. I am t the dentist at least 3-4 times a month. These crowns are semi translucent with an outer partial see through crown and an inner hard crown. I’m going in tomorrow to put in permanent crowns and my right upper central incisors just broke. Only the outer translucent material breaks with inner crown fine but obviously much smaller than the other central incisors. This is two years of going on vacation with temporary crowns that fall off two to three times a day and again no steak on vacation. Is there a reason the crowns keep breaking and what crowns would be sturdier? Is there a temporary crown that will allow me to eat with my family in Vegas?

Christopher Swicord, DMD · Answer

I am sorry you have been dealing with these issues! Without Xrays, and models it is hard to say exactly what is going. But, It is highly likely you have a parafunctional grinding habit or parafunctional bite that needs to be addressed. You should ask to have an anterior guide table done and have your parafunctional movements recorded. It sounds like the restorations have been created to fit the "Ideal Bite". It is common for poeple with parafunctional biting issues to have restorations breaking, especially the upper teeth.... Without Xrays, and models it is hard to say exactly what is going, but I advise you get this done and have the final restorations fabricated in a way that accounts for these destructive movements rather than "blocking them". It is also possible you lack posterior support (you mentioned a partial) You may want to consider wearing the partial when you sleep to reduce the amount of force on your front teeth. I also HIGHLY recommend a night guard to wear at night.

Sol Shahri, DDS · Answer

Hi. I'm so sorry that you are going through this. It's somewhat hard to assess this only because there are so many factors involved. For one, if your bite is heavy in a certain area, that would increase the likelihood of a fracture. If the dentist didn't remove enough tooth structure, then an area that is very thin is more likely to break as well. If we assume the dentist did everything right and this is happening, then I would say that it's important to use zirconia crowns for strength. There is nothing stronger that we can offer for a crown other than a zirconia crown. To be specific, 3Y monolithic zirconia is THE strongest. This isn't the most cosmetic option but can still be made to look great. As far as temporary solutions go, you're not going to find something strong enough that's made of temporary material. More importantly, any temporary solution isn't going to fix the core issue of a misaligned bite or improper reduction of the tooth. Ask your dentist to fix the underlying issues and you'll get the result you were hoping for.

Dental crowns breaking multiple times in less than a year - is there a sturdier option?

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Answers (2)

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Is it necessary to remove and replace a three bridge crown if it cracks?

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WE SEND PRETTY
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