A couple of years ago, I paid an awful lot of money for a root canal and crown on my very back bottom-left molar. Now I have broken that crown. I will call the dentist on Monday. I assume my options will be a new crown or extraction.
Have any of you had a very back molar extracted? I am worried about chewing, of course, but I am also concerned that my other teeth might shift. I had braces for several years, so I would hate to get all crooked and weird!
A dental implant is way out of my budget. I don’t know whether bridgework can be used in that position. A new crown would be expensive, but I am freaked out by the idea of losing a tooth.
I’ve had two 3rd-molars removed (#16 and #32). One grew in very crooked and partially impacted, and had to be cut into pieces to remove it. The other, for no particularly obvious reason, just sort of rotted away, and when pieces of it began to break off, it had to be yanked.
All four wisdom teeth were removed twenty years ago. About seven years ago my second (by then, the back) molar on the upper right (#2, tooth nerds) could not be saved. If I’d had dental insurance or sufficient savings I’d have gotten an implant because I too was freaked out at the notion of letting a tooth go without a replacement. But I did not have either of those things so I had it extracted for 1/9 of what an implant would have cost.
I haven’t missed it. Chewing is no problem. And my cheekbone got a little bonus definition on that side. There was not significant shifting following that. I did notice shifting after an extraction on the other side a few years later, but that left a gap between teeth.
dentist here. When you say you broke the crown, I’m assuming it was a crown with porcelain. If it is all porc. it would need to be replaced. If it is porc. over metal then you could just smooth the fractured porc. the metal substrate still protects the tooth. As for chewing it won’t make that much difference. If you extract it your bite will not usually change. teeth tend to shift forward over time, not backward so taking out a second molar will not change the front teeth. I’m making the assumption that it is a second molar not a wisdom tooth as one would not usually do an RCT and crown on a third molar if the other teeth were intact.
Not a dentist here (but I do have pretty lousy teeth). A molar at the very back, I’d yank it without a second thought. What dentists don’t tend to tell you (sorry, rsat3acr) is how much relief you get when a tooth that has been filled multiple times then crowned then root canaled comes out of your head. I had a second-from-back tooth removed a couple of years ago and then had a permanent bridge put in; if it had been the back tooth, I wouldn’t have bothered with the bridge.
I have a problem breaking porcelain crowns on molars, and my more recent crowns have all been gold. I may get a very badly chipped porcelain crown, which mostly looks like gray metal now, replaced soon. (I don’t know what sort of options there are for resurfacing the gray metal substrate.) Gold crowns don’t cost terribly more, as there is not that much gold in them - considering this is after all a part of your head we are talking about!
If the tooth isn’t painful, I’d say, absolutely get a gold crown.
If the tooth stays painful, extraction sounds better. I had a molar with multiple fillings, which we then capped, and then we did a root canal (I don’t remember if this was done by removing the cap or drilling through it). The pain never stopped. Turns out that the tooth was broken into two equal sized halves, one on the tongue side and one on the cheek side. Since x-rays were always looking across the crack rather than along it, they never saw it. Getting rid of this tooth was a huge improvement.
This is right- I had a piece of the porcelain break off (with a mighty “CRACK!” sound in my head), and my dentist said that there wasn’t any reason to replace it- the steel would protect the tooth, and the piece that broke off wasn’t huge.
He smoothed it down, and I’ve had it like that for 3-4 years now.
Beyond that… what’s the price difference? I can’t imagine that they’re not in the same ballpark- most of the issue with crowns is the tooth prep, not the actual crown itself. I imagine you could get a new crown for somewhere in the ballpark of $300 or less, not the upwards of $1000 for a totally new one.
Cat Whisperer No appoligies needed. If you notice I said just smoothing chipped porcelain is fine a la bump Ipersonally had an upper second molar extracted v. restored. Every situation is different. My job is to explain options with their pluses and minuses to the patients.
Thanks for the input! I will still go to the dentist ASAP to be sure nothing is exposed that shouldn’t be, but it sounds like I might be able to make do with smoothing the the chipped edge of the porcelain for now since it isn’t causing me any problems.
A molar at the very back, I’d yank it without a second thought. What dentists don’t tend to tell you (sorry, rsat3acr) is how much relief you get when a tooth that has been filled multiple times then crowned then root canaled comes out of your head. I had a second-from-back tooth removed a couple of years ago and then had a permanent bridge put in; if it had been the back tooth, I wouldn’t have bothered with the bridge.