Crown Preparation
You are wearing a temporary dental crown to protect your tooth between the dental crown preparation and tooth crown insertion appointments. This dental crown is held in place with temporary cement that will allow the dental crown to be easily removed without trauma to your tooth at the next appointment. For that reason, chewing on the tooth crown should be avoided, especially chewy, sticky foods that might dislodge the dental crown, or crunchy foods that may fracture it, or your tooth. Should your temporary tooth crown come loose, call us. You may replace it yourself, with or without adhesive. If you’d like to use adhesive, there are over the counter adhesives (with directions for use) available at the 24-hour pharmacy on Cedar Avenue near the Dakota Dental Apple Valley dental clinic.
Your gum tissue will be tender after the anesthetic has worn off. The cleaner you keep the tissue, the sooner it will heal. If it is too tender to brush with a toothbrush, you may clean the area with a Q-tip moistened in warm water. Floss your temporary dental crown each day. After cleaning under the gum tissue, remove the floss by sliding it out toward your tongue or cheek. Do not snap the floss out toward the biting surface as the tooth crown may be loosened. If the tooth crown should come loose, call Dakota Dental Center for an appointment to have it re-cemented.
Sensitivity to hot and cold is to be expected and should be of no concern, unless it lingers after eating. The temporary dental crown has been kept short of the gum tissue where possible to aid in healing. However, that exposes tooth structure that may be sensitive to touch, temperature and air.
If you experience any severe discomfort, or any symptom that seems abnormal, please call your Dakota Dental Clinic at 952-431-5774 immediately.
Crown Insertion
Do not chew on your new dental crown, or floss around it, until tomorrow. It will take that long for the cement to reach its final hardness. The cement acts as a seal and we don’t want the seal to form with “cracks” in it.
A tooth with a new dental crown is often sensitive to temperature changes. If the initial insult to the tooth (decay, fracture, etc.) was not too severe, this sensitivity should improve during the next few months. Call Dakota Dental Center for an appointment to evaluate the nerve of the tooth if the sensitivity increases in intensity or duration over the next several months.
If you experience any severe discomfort, or any symptom that seems abnormal, please call our Apple Valley dental care office at 952-431-5774 immediately.