I’ve got a crown that is causing me nothing but grief. My dentist talked me into getting a CEREC crown, saying it would be faster and fit better. That has definitely not been the case. First, I was in the dental chair for several hours. Then, when she tried to put the crown on it didn’t fit. She had to grind away a lot of it. Now the tooth is flat looking instead of having the bumps my other molars do. She said my tooth was in such bad shape that she had to take a generic image from the machine. I went to the CEREC site to try to get some information. What they showed was the image of the tooth looking a lot like the image of my tooth she took. The site said the crown should only take a few moments to put in with only minor adjustments needed. It’s been over a week and this crown still hurts. Did she do this right?
Daniel
Dear Daniel,
I agree with you that something is not right here. When a crown is properly fitted, then the patient should not even notice it. One thing you mentioned that puzzles me is her statement about having to use a generic image because your tooth was in too bad of a shape. Every tooth that needs a dental crown is in bad shape; otherwise, it would not need a crown to begin with.
How the CEREC software works is the dentist inputs which tooth needs the crown. Yours was a molar, so the dentist would input which molar. CEREC gives the dentist a starting point for designing the crown. Then, she inputs the images of the surrounding and opposing teeth and the machine mills it to fit your tooth and bite perfectly. That obviously did not happen in your case. Either she didn’t know what she was doing, or could it be possible that you have gum disease so your gums were bleeding and she could not get a clear image?
What I would like you to do is get a second opinion about this crown. When you go to another dentist, do not tell them who your dentist was. Just ask them to look at the crown and give their unbiased opinion. I think another dentist’s eyes will help you get to the root of the problem.
This blog is brought to you by Atlanta Dentist Dr. David Pumphrey.
