Baton Rouge Dentist

Archives for August 2011

What can I do to cover up these ugly porcelain-fused-to-metal crowns?

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When I was 20 years old I had porcelain-fused-to-metal crowns placed on my teeth. That was almost 25 years ago, and now those crowns look pretty bad. There is a very noticeable dark line at my gumline, and I have a really big smile. Is there anything that can cover that line up? What about Lumineers? What about dental bonding? I don’t want to have to replace all these porcelain crowns because that will be pretty expensive, but I have about reached the end of being able to deal with these ugly crowns.

Melissa in Augusta, Maine

Dear Melissa,

There are really not many options for you here. You need new porcelain crowns, and if you chose the right dentist to help you, your new smile will be stunning. Putting Lumineers or some other kind of porcelain veneer over your existing crowns will not yield good results, and dental bonding will not work to disguise the dark line.

The most important point to take from this discussion is that you need to choose an experienced, expert, artistic cosmetic dentist to help you get this work done. Any dentist can say that they do cosmetic work, so you’ll need to be a careful investigator. Check websites for patient galleries, and ask about specialized training.

This blog post created for Baton Rouge dentist Dr. Perry.

Timing of wisdom teeth removal

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I am nearly 60 years old, and have had all my wisdom teeth up until a few weeks ago. One of the upper teeth had cracked, and my dentist said it was easier in this case to remove it than to repair it, so we took both the top teeth. The procedure went very well, and I am completely recovered.

My question is, do I have to have the other two out now? I’ve always heard of people having all four taken out. I asked my dentist about it and he said there is no reason to, though if I decide I want to I’ll have to have an oral surgeon do those as they are impacted. He said it might also affect a dental bridge I wear on the left side.

Is it worth it? What are the benefits? Thanks in advance for your help.

Celia in Bar Harbor, MA

Dear Celia,

In your case, it does not sound like there is a compelling reason to remove your remaining wisdom teeth. There should be a better reason than just “they are wisdom teeth”. It also sounds like that would be a more difficult and expensive procedure, with a long recovery. If your regular dentist did the extraction on your upper wisdom teeth, then they were probably not impacted. If the bottom ones are, their removal is more difficult, and the recovery will take longer.

Your dentist is giving you sound advice. I would keep the wisdom teeth in until there is some good reason to remove them.

Baton Rouge dentist Dr. Perry’s office sponsored this blog post.

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