Tips to Take Care of a Temporary Dental Crown

A temporary dental crown is attached using a weaker adhesive. Hence, it can be easily removed and replaced by a permanent crown whenever necessary.

You certainly don't want your temporary dental crown to come off a few days after fitting it. Well, it might happen, if you don't exercise caution when it comes to eating the right foods or maintaining oral hygiene. Following are the precautions that you need to follow to prevent your temporary dental crown from falling off.

When fitted with a temporary dental crown, you cannot eat whatever you want. To be specific, you need to exclude hard foods from the diet. This will ensure that the temporary dental crown doesn't come off or becomes loose.

Crowns tend to break or chip on chewing crunchy, hard foods such as crackers, cookies, raw carrots, potato chips, pizza crust, hard candy, bagels, pretzels, ice, nuts, and celery. So, biting on hard foods is a strict no-no when wearing a temporary dental crown.

Sticky foods can also be detrimental to your temporary dental crown as they can dislodge the restoration. The stickiness in these foods may loosen the crown, and eventually it may fall off. Thus, you run the risk of pulling down the temporary crown by eating sticky foods like chewing gum and chocolates.

Grinding or clenching teeth too can destabilize the dental crown. The pressure exerted due to teeth grinding is high enough to break the dental crown. Severe cases of bruxism are known to fracture dental crowns and fillings. So, try to quit this habit of gnashing your teeth.

Although brushing is important, make sure you do not exert excessive pressure on the dental crown. You need to brush with soft hands to gently clear the area surrounding the dental crown. Putting excessive pressure while brushing can definitely unseat the dental restorative material. Your dentist may also suggest a specially designed brush for maintaining oral hygiene.

You need to alter the way you floss to keep the dental crown intact. So, when flossing, make sure you move the thread in between the teeth only. Do not move the thread up and put excessive pressure on the tooth while flossing. You can consult your dentist to know about this special flossing technique.

If you don't stop chewing your nails, the dental crown is sure to fall off sooner than later. Also, we often tend to open plastic packets by tearing them apart using the teeth. This habit too can unseat the dental crown, hence should be avoided.

Keep in mind that the temporary dental crown is not as sturdy or durable as permanent dental crown. Its main purpose is to prevent any damage to the affected tooth until the permanent crown is made for placement.

On the whole, if you want to protect your crown from falling off, follow the aforementioned tips and rest assured, the temporary restorative material will remain till the required time.

Disclaimer: The information provided in this story is solely for educating the reader. It is not intended to be a substitute for the advice of a medical expert.