I just had a long string of dental problems, culminating in my first root canal and need to get a couple teeth crowned, but my Raleigh dentist is claiming he has never done a prefabricated steel crown and so has none of the stuff or experience to do it, insisting on a porcelain fused to high-noble metal (gold I think) for $560 a piece. There is very little tooth material left, so whatever crown I get is not going to last very long before needing to be replaced (the core buildup material shrinks over time). There are also large fillings opposite these teeth, and I think the porcelain will be too hard and unyielding during impacts, possibly causing serious damage. That just leave the thermal expansion properties of the gold, which better matches tooth material, but since I have no tooth material what does that matter? Which only leaves the cost difference, which adds up quickly. If I get them to just leave off the porcelain, which appears to cost exactly the same amount, I think the steel looks better.

I have another prefab. steel crown from my Fayetteville dentist for $250 which seems to be lasting just fine. I am very tempted to just drive to fayetteville to have the crowning done, but it seems like a terrible idea to have a tooth root canalled by one dentist and crowned by another. If anything goes wrong, they are each going to blame the other.

Any opinions?

1/15/2012 12:24:08 PM

I don't see anything wrong with getting a second opinion. I wish I had done that when I had my root canal done. Yeah if something goes wrong they'll blame each other but if something goes wrong with just the first guy good luck getting him to admit wrongdoing anyway.

1/15/2012 1:55:01 PM