need crown on tipped tooth - need doc opinion plz

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#1 Post by **fosterp** » Sat Dec 12, 2009 10:01 pm

I am going to get braces in a couple months, however before I do that the orthodontist told me I need to put a crown on a molar in my upper left arch. He noticed that the tooth was slanted in an odd way but didn't mention any problem with putting a crown on it. My question is, the tooth is tipped in a way that its sort of leaning up against the pre-molar in front of it because of the fact that a lot of the upper part of the molar is missing. If a crown were to restore this tooth, wouldn't the tooth in front of it sort of be "in the way" of a full restoration. To me, it looks like this tooth would need to be corrected into its former upright position in order to put a full crown on it, otherwise the crown would need to be molded in a way that accounts for it leaning into the other tooth, which would then function kind of weirdly once it was corrected after braces.

Am I making sense in my reasoning here or is there something I don't know about this?

Here is an x-ray of the tooth, I am talking about the one on the upper right side.

http://img704.imageshack.us/i/teeth7.jpg/

#2 Post by **drrick** » Sun Dec 13, 2009 9:29 am

do you know what the orthodontic plan is -- upright the tooth to open space or upright the roots to close the space?

A crown can be placed to mimic the current position of the tooth and then move it. there appears to be room to prepare it for the crown. (you cant tell everything from an x-ray as they are 2 dimensional)

Another option could be to place a temporary crown on teh tooth -- move it -- and then place the permanent crown.

#3 Post by **fosterp** » Sun Dec 13, 2009 10:35 am

the plan is to upright the roots to close the space. That tooth is the first molar originally but my ortho thought it was the second molar due to the way the roots were tipped - I have no idea why the roots tipped like that

#4 Post by **drrick** » Mon Dec 14, 2009 8:52 am

If the crown can be placed now so that it mimics the morpholgy and angulation of the tooth then shoudnt be a big deal. If the morphology has to be altered d/t the tip then I would opt for a temporary crown (or a 'cheap' permanent crown with the plan being to replace it after the tooth is in the proper position.)

That tooth is a bit 'beat up' so I can understand why your doc wants it restored now. As long as each of your docs understands the plan then should work out just fine.

#5 Post by **ANGELFLUTTER** » Tue Dec 22, 2009 2:29 am

I wanted to ask almost the same question. I had a root canal done on an upper molar with a temporary crown placed. I will be getting braces after the first of the year. Can I get the braces with the temp crown? I know that my teeth will be moving around. My temporary is filed down to fit into the tooth immediately below it as it is now. I keep reading posts about how peoples bites feel " off " as the teeth are moving. I do not want to have the permanent crown placed - only to have the tooth moved into another position and end up having to get a new permanent crown after the braces come off. Crowns here run around $2,000.00. I wish to have the braces done with the temporary crown and then after treatment have the permanent placed.

Is this the right thing to do? I have really been worried about this due to the financial aspect. I can barely afford all of the pre braces dental work that I am having done - plus paying for the baces. God knows, I can't afford another 2 grand on top of everything else.

#6 Post by **Saysee** » Tue Dec 22, 2009 9:32 am

I had to have my four, back, lower crowns replaced in preparation for braces. (The crowns replaced were gold and porcelain. The new temporary crowns were built up 2 mm in order to adjust to my jaw correction.) Any way, brackets can't adhere to gold. If you have gold, orthos use these bands which means spacers first. The one band I do have with its fixture stands out about a quarter-inch on the side of my face. I hate it. I feel like I have a bolt in my mouth, like Frankenstein's monster's neck.