If you were born 100000 years ago, you could expect to live 33. Considering that the first lower molar erupts at around the age of 6, if you were a cave man, your first molar would have only had to last about 27 years.
For the sake of comparison, today in the UK the life expectancy is 79.4 years for men and 83.1 years for women, and that comes with different challenges. Over 160.000 hip and knee replacement are performed per year in UK and the number is growing.
Our teeth too, go through a lot in a lifetime and as a result they wear out too. If you are looking after them – avoiding sugary or acidy foods, not smoking, not drinking very hot liquids followed by ice-cream and if you brush them correctly twice a day, they may last your entire lifetime. But if your dentist advises you you’re going to need a crown, don’t panic. It’s a procedure that is meant to give your tooth a new life. Dental crowns can be seen as the knee replacement of dentistry.
A crown is an indirect prosthetic device that’s made in a laboratory and is cemented onto existing tooth.
The benefits of having a crown are:
- Strengthens a damaged tooth
- Improves appearance, shape and alignment and dental occlusion (bite).
How do we know a tooth needs a crown?
- Cracks: hot-cold / cold -hot thermo-cycles, grinding your teeth at night (bruxism), biting on olive pits or occasional un-popped kennel of pop-corn and old fillings, may cause the outer layer (enamel) to crack.
At Pontesbury dental we are pretty good at finding them by using magnifying loupes with light, trans-illumination and other specific methods.
- Wear: as you age, you wear your teeth. Some people wear their teeth more than others.
- Failing existing restoration: They also wear, crack, and break. We do our best to make them last a long time, but eventually they fail. It’s no different than your car: you still need to change the oil, brake pads, tyres, filters much more frequently than a dental restoration.
- Decay under existing restorations: Your teeth are covered in biofilm that contains bacteria even if your brushing technique is great. If a small leak occurs in a filling or crown bacteria can infiltrate and multiply.
Early diagnosis and treatment drastically improves predictability and longevity. The average lifespan for a well-maintained dental crown vary from 7 to 15 years. However when taken care of properly the can last up to 20-25 years.
By Marius Ilea