It starts with a weakened tooth:
- either from decay,
- or from a fracture,
- or from an old amalgam filling with decay around it.
Simply filling it again risks the tooth breaking. It has to be rebuilt properly!
Root treatment
First the tooth is gently numbed, then the root canal or canals are cleaned and filled.
This paste, which shows up white on X-rays, is placed in a single visit with modern techniques. With the older methods it took 2 or 3 appointments with temporary dressings in between.
Rebuilding the tooth and the crown
Next we rebuild the tooth so that it can support a crown, which will protect the whole thing.
And there you have it: a crown, usually matched to the colour of your teeth, restores both of the tooth’s roles — strong enough to eat with and good to smile with!
How long does a crowned tooth last?
It varies enormously: it may last a lifetime — or a few months, or a few years. The crown itself is very strong and unbreakable, but the weak link is the root underneath.
It depends on the stage at which the tooth was crowned: if it was very fragile, with thin walls and slender roots, it may crack or break underneath and cause an abscess. It is also possible for parts of the canals to be impossible to treat and invisible on X-rays, so that a cyst forms beneath the tooth and eventually becomes infected.
