How long will a crown last?

This really depends on a lot of factors. The biggest factor is how well you take care of it. If you never brush, floss, or get a cleaning after the crown is placed, it won't last long at all! There are other factors that decrease the potential life span of a crown. A patient on heavy medications, has dry mouth, or chronically grinds their teeth will find their crowns (or even natural) teeth won't last as long as the crowns of a patient without any of these factors. Add all these factors together, and you get a time range really too large to even speculate.

What are dental crowns?

Crowns are like a cap for your tooth. Often times, if you have had significant damage to a tooth due to decay or trauma, a crown is recommended. A crown strengthens and reinforces a weak tooth, so that you can bite and chew on it without worrying about the tooth fracturing in the future.

When is a crown necessary?

There are a few circumstances when a crown is a necessary treatment option for a tooth:

1) If you've fractured the tooth - Sometimes a tooth is fractured through trauma (fall off a skateboard and hit your front tooth on the ground). If a significant portion of the tooth is fractured, a simple filling just isn't strong enough to last.

2) Large decay - If you have a big cavity in your tooth, after the dentist has removed the decay, there may not be enough natural tooth structure left to support a filling. In this case a crown will be recommended.

3) Large existing filling - Remember those big silver fillings? They do last a long time. But often times, those fillings will eventually fracture. If you have an unusually large filling that fractured, there's a large chance that if it's replaced with another filling, you'll end up with the same result - another fractured filling. In these cases a crown will be the better choice for a restoration.

4) You've just had a root canal - If you've just had a root canal, the dentist had to open a pathway to the tooth pulp to do his job. This leaves that tooth weak, and filling this hole is not good enough to give the tooth strength. After a root canal is done, a crown is recommended for that tooth in order to give it enough strength to safely chew on.