Metal Mouth Message Board

Hi everyone . I was referred to this site by a friend on another message board. Glad to be here because there seems to be a wealth of knowledge here and I am grateful to have access to it. I guess I am a bit nervous about dealing with braces after the ordeal I have had with my teeth over the past the 8 months. I have never had any issues with my teeth after routine fillings until the last two I had done last year. Long story short both fillings ended up turning into root canals shortly after because the nerve became very irritated and caused me so much physical and mental anguish and pain. I finally finished my treatment with getting the subsequent crowns this past December. Gratefully I am out out pain with those teeth but was later diagnosed with mild TMJ in my jaw. My new dentist seems to feel that if I can have my bite fixed it may help alleviate a lot symptoms and it getting worse down the line.

My teeth are not too bad but there is some flaring and spacing issues. I am a bit self conscious about it especially when I talk because I feel folks are staring at my teeth. I think I would feel better about myself if they were more aligned. I have a consult coming up in the next few weeks and was curious if I could even get braces because of those two crowns I have on the back molars. I know it sounds crazy but I felt a part of me died when the dentist ground down those teeth to a small nub in place for a crown. I guess I am just getting nervous from all the pain I have endured over the past couple of months and don't want to make things worse with the braces.

You can absolutely get braces with crowns. I have two as well -- one gold crown and one porcelain crown. Bracket directly bonded to the latter with no problems and a molar band around the gold crown.

Absolutely you can have braces with crowns, however, as mentioned above, the brackets don't tend to stay on porcelain or metal as well as enamel. A special preparation is required to etch the crowns, a process slightly more complicated than with regular teeth.

Keep in mind that crowns may have to be "roughened" up on the surface to increase bond strength. They may also lose some surface luster after brackets have been removed. Therefore, you may want to see your dentist for some touch ups to the crown if you see any changes to the crowns.

Good luck!

Thanks everyone. I was just a tad nervous messing with those crowns afterall they costs me so much money.

feels bad having your teeth grounded for crowns

but the reality of the matter is that if your teeth are needing crowns they are already damaged beyond repair of a normal filling and its just something that has to be done, otherwise sit around with a half broken tooth that will probably need to be extracted later if not crowned now

as far as braces, i think they can bracket porcelain crowns, or use molar bands if that doesn't work

i actually have one of those cheap steel crowns that is WAY old and my ortho is going to just drill a small hole in the side and attach a bracket there

of course I will have to replace that steel crown once my braces come off but that is a given anyway

Actually my teeth only required those crowns because I had a root canal. I had no issues with my teeth prior from getting a filling due to a cavity. It was the subsequent nerve irritation from the result of having the fillings done that necessitated the need for a root canal. A root canal causes your teeth to become very brittle due to the loss of the blood supply because the damaged nerve is removed. In fact they are pretty much required after a root canal treatment to avoid an extraction down the line from the tooth fracturing due to pressure.

Hello
I have just had my bottom braces fitted to crowns on the back molars. They used a different sort of glue for those. However when I have my top braces fitted they are going to change the crowns on my front teeth (as they are porcelain) and put temporary rougher ones there so that the glue will stick to them.

Odd that they can't bond the brackets to the porcelain crown. I've had a bracket attached to my porcelain crown for 18 months without a problem. My orthodontist explained that you just have to reverse engineer the process you use to bond ceramic to tooth to get the metal to stick to the porcelain. I'm sure it's more complicated than that, but it made enough sense to me.

we bond to porc crowns all the time. The bond isnt as strong as it is to natural tooth structure but we do it every day.

Hi
I did wonder. Each crown is going to cost me £350 so i'm going to ask when I go why they could bond the brace to some crowns and not others. I have the report here, it states:- "As discussed, with the pocelain crowns on your upper teeth you would probably require acrylic crowns on these teeth for better bonding of the fixed appliances" It concerns me slightly that they are going to remove crowns that have served me well for 20 years to replace them with temporary ones.

You can have bonds attached to porcelain crowns, it just takes a stronger material to do so usually I think hydrofluoric acid which is why perhaps some orthodontists don't like to do this. I have heard also it does slightly change the look of the crown, it might not be as lustre after as someone else has already said.

I got my Ice Inspire with a bridge - unfortunately though I had to get the bridge cut and lost the piece that was hiding where the missing tooth was, then got metal bands around the two teeth left under the bridge. Complicated but it worked. Luckily for me though I wasn't too bothered about wrecking my bridge completely because I planned to get it replaced anyway due to poor fit, poor colour match and the fact I wanted an all ceramic bridge as opposed to porcelain bonded onto metal.

I'd say that even if it's possible to change the look of the crown with the etching solution, I'd still encourage getting the existing crowns bonded. If you do have to replace them after braces, it's something you'd already be going through. If you don't have to replace them, think of all of the time and expense you've saved yourself.

After my crown drama, I'd even push for a band on a front tooth before replacing a crown with a temporary crown just to have it re-crowned down the road.

It could also be that they are too short or their can be some other reason. COuld be the material they are made of -- the materials we use today are a lot different than those we used in teh past.

Hello
I've not posted for ages (other things going on in my life and all that) but i've got a bit of an issue going on with my crowns I wondered if anyone had the same problem. You'll see from a previous post that I had my crowns changed as the Ortho said the brackets wouldn't stick to porcalain crowns. Well they certainly won't stick to the ones they were replaced with
I have had to go back 4 times now because within hours of having a new bracket fitted it pops off again. I have had no problem with sticking to the crown on the bottom that I didn't get changed. I am getting very frustrated now as it is slowing down what would otherwise be excellent progress.