Well basically you are done!

If you received anesthetic to seat the crown and are numb, don’t eat until the numbness goes away. This is strictly so that you do not bite yourself and has nothing to do with the crown.

If you did not get numb you can now eat and chew whatever you normally do. You can floss and brush around the crown now too.

Bite issues

It is not uncommon for the crown to feel “a little strange” for a day as you adjust to the new shape of the crown. Sensitivity should be completely gone within the first day or two. The bite should feel normal to you shortly after the numbness wears off, or if you are not numb then right away. The biggest problem we see is a crown that is just a little too high. I recommend if the bite feels funny or off the day after a crown is seated come back in and let us adjust it. The crown WILL NOT adjust itself; it will only make your tooth more and more sore! Adjusting the bite on your crown takes less than 5 minutes and you will not feel anything.

Occasionally, we seat a crown that has just had a root canal, or I feel has a nerve that may be stressed. In these circumstances, I recommend following my 3x3x3 rule (3 ibuprofen x 3 times a day for 3 days) or 2x2x2 same idea. If I told you to do this during your visit do it, if not don’t.

Guarantee and Care

A dental crown will not last forever, and there is no guarantee for how long your particular crown will last. We do guarantee your crown against structural failure for 5 years provided you are following a regular maintenance schedule. Depending on your age, dental habits, and diet a dental crown may need to be replaced during your life-time. Studies of longevity can be found at wheatondentalcrown.blogspot.com. A dental crown is a color stable prosthesis and will not bleach or stain. You can break it, but they are generally VERY strong. One change that will occur is with the gum tissue. Your gumline will generally recede as you get older and expose more of the crown. This may become an esthetic issue.

Where the crown meets the tooth is an area that can still get decay, so regular brushing and hygiene visits are critical. A crown has very little impact, positive or negative, on gum disease. If gum disease is a problem for you, do not expect this tooth to be immune to those issues. A tooth with a crown may still require a root canal; even many, many years after being placed. The tooth, or more precisely the roots of the tooth, may fracture or break under the crown causing the tooth to be lost.

Bryan Bauer, DDS, FAGD