Temporary Cement for my Permanent Implant Crown?

There are many 'Temporary Cements' one can use to glue in the crown part of a Implant Crown.  Rarely do the crowns come off but if we need to tighten a screw or change the color or fit we have the availablitly to do so with a less adhesive glue. It is a very common practice.

Dear Bonbonmilk:

Temporary and permanent are relative terms and are NOT scientific terminology.  The question is of relative STRENGTH of the cement used.

For natural teeth, usually we try and use the strongest type of cement, and there are several different kinds.  We want to make sure that the cement does not leak out and as a result, the tooth can decay underneath.  In addition, we generally do not want to be able to remove the crown after it is cemented on the tooth.  This is why people refer to it as "permanent" cement.  The correct term should be: final cement.

On implants, since there are components which can loosen (the screw), or break (the abutment), the flexibility of being able to remove the implant crown off of the abutment is desirable.   Hence, most implant crowns are usually cemented with the weakest cement medium possible.  Most dentist use a weak cement which is used as a provisional (temporary) cement on natural teeth, the most popular one is called: Temp-Bond.  This is why most people refer to it as a temporary cement, even though in the case of the implant crown it is the "permanent" one, or more properly: the final cement.

Your dentist is following standard practice.

Best wishes,

Dr. Zev Kaufman