"Permanent dental crown's & diving"

[DocVikingo]

You can thank your sinuses for that.

Best regards.

DocVikingo

 

[Garfish]

Thanks Dr. Stein for your comments on crowns'. I see your points verses doing a crown or a patch work job. It is very good advice & appreciate it very much.
I'm going for it and be done with it. I want to think more about planning my next dive than anything else.

ScubaJorgen, you to , thanks and take good care of yourself. Watch out for them colds.

Frank O, i see you have a million dollar smile. thanks.

Sam

 

[Ondeen]

In short, a properly fitted permanent crown on a solid, healthy tooth should cause you no problems while diving.

I'm asking our diving dentist, Dr. Larrry Stein, for his opinion as well.

Best regards.

DocVikingo

DocVikingo,

Thank you for what you do for all of us who dive. Your work is appreciated.

I have had problems with dental crowns but not with pressure beneath them or anything of that sort. Crowns do occasionally come off for no apparent reason. This can pose a major problem to a diver if that crown drops to be bottom of the sea! This occurred to me after I had lost a few rather new crowns and was about to embark on a dive trip. My dentist tried to come up with some sort of guard to protect the crowns and prevent such a mishap. Most ideas were expensive and not very realistic.

It occurred to me that the trays used to hold the whitener would do nicely. My dentist agreed and had these made for me. It was fortuitous in that a crown from a front tooth fell off when we were still at the airport. Initially I temporarily secured the crown with a bit of toothpaste and wore the plastic tray which fit over my teeth firmly. I then managed to find a dentist in Grand Cayman who bonded the crown in place. Needless to say, I wouldn't be without the trays when diving!

I can't imagine that this affects many divers but it certainly must have a potential impact on a few. The whitener tray was a relatively inexpensive solution and it certainly worked. My dive vacation was much nicer with the crown than it could have been without it!

Aquafinna

 

[pilot fish]

DocVikingo,

Thank you for what you do for all of us who dive. Your work is appreciated.

I have had problems with dental crowns but not with pressure beneath them or anything of that sort. Crowns do occasionally come off for no apparent reason. This can pose a major problem to a diver if that crown drops to be bottom of the sea! This occurred to me after I had lost a few rather new crowns and was about to embark on a dive trip. My dentist tried to come up with some sort of guard to protect the crowns and prevent such a mishap. Most ideas were expensive and not very realistic.

It occurred to me that the trays used to hold the whitener would do nicely. My dentist agreed and had these made for me. It was fortuitous in that a crown from a front tooth fell off when we were still at the airport. Initially I temporarily secured the crown with a bit of toothpaste and wore the plastic tray which fit over my teeth firmly. I then managed to find a dentist in Grand Cayman who bonded the crown in place. Needless to say, I wouldn't be without the trays when diving!

I can't imagine that this affects many divers but it certainly must have a potential impact on a few. The whitener tray was a relatively inexpensive solution and it certainly worked. My dive vacation was much nicer with the crown than it could have been without it!

Aquafinna

Love your name Ondine, you scary sea Goodess

 

[Laurence Stein DDS]

Ondine,

Man! This is getting really confusing!!

It seems you've posted the same question on two different OLD threads. Sorting the dates and responses is rather confusing. Just start your own thread and ask your own question.

I thought I answered your question on the root canal thread you also posted to. In that thread you indicate that you lost ONE crown after a flight. Now you are saying that you lost a FEW rather new crowns. If you lost more than one in close time proximity my suspicion meter just jumped!

Were your permanent crowns cemented with TEMPORARY cement? This is occasionally done to allow future removal of the crowns...especially if your dentist is suspicious of something about the teeth. To have a few new crowns coming loose is rather suspicious if they were permanently cemented.

Permanent cement is so strong that it would be years, if ever that the crown came off. The newer dental cements are so strong that it usually isn't possible to get the crown off with a "crown and bridge remover" when we want to. We are more likely to break the tooth off at the neck with the crown still attached.

Multiple cement failures of crowns cemented at the same dental visit makes me suspicious that there was some sort of technique failure like I described in the other thread. Another cause could be very short prepared teeth or overly tapered preparations. This reduces the natural retentiveness of the preparations and thus more reliance on the cement to hold the crowns in place.

All this is speculation and perhaps you should see your dentist and discuss the cementation with him. I don't actually know why your crowns came off nor do I know why you said one came off and then a few came off. It certainly wouldn't be fair for me or you to blame you dentist.

The tray you describe certainly saved the day but shouldn't normally be needed.

Regards,

Laurence Stein, DDS

 

[frenchy07]

My wife (and dive buddy) asked this question of our instructor when we were in class last spring. His answer was simply "if it is a problem you will know real quick, then you can get the dentist to do the job right". He went on to say (after he opened his mouth and showed us his lovely (ick) collection of dental repairs) "I have never had any problems and I don't think I have any teeth left that haven't been worked on".

Long story short, my lady ws very worried about some of her recent dental repairs and had no problems at all.

Brian

 

[mania]

As Frank O I also have a Holywood smile with 20 crowns and 8 implants. No problem with diving - I was diving also with temporary crowns. And no problems even when diving deep. But I feel the cold if the water is really cold
Mania

 

[Jafo123]

I have two crowns and never had a problem. I have heard though to make sure to tell your dentist that you are a scuba diver and please make sure there itsn't any air pockets left under the crown.

Good diving. jafo

 

[Nomaster]

I thought this was a PM, I got my screens mixed up.
Oh well, I'll let it stand.

Dr. Stein,

I was going to post this on an old thread that had been resurrected. I had second thoughts and decided to let the thread attempt to finally die a well deserved final death.
But I'm not sure this question deserves its own thread.
I have a crown and many fillings. My ex- brother-in-law, a dentist, upon examining my previous work remarked that most of the work was simply heroics (meaning there was no tooth, just filling)!
Yet, never a problem.
But, now upon reading (your) Dr Stein's post of October 30

Hi Garfish, . . .
Of more concern are old silver fillings. They are frequently associated with undetected fractures within the tooth. As these fillings age, they continue to expand and can actually break the tooth. Placing a new filling in an old filling position may, in fact be covering up an undetectable fracture. This then becomes symp(t)omatic after the new filling is done.
. . .
Laurence Stein, DDS
:doctor:

concerning the aging of fillings, I'm curious how lucky have I been and how long might this luck go on. Some of the "heroics" are around 35 years old, some have had work done where old work had been connected to further problems with the teeth they were on.
I have had no need for dental work in about ten years; and no extensive examination. I had an exam in April, but no x-rays.
I have also been curious that I had gum line facials (long since eroded) and the color matching and other work was apparently so good, that my ex- brother-in-law, denied their existence. Is that possible? I mean is it possible for an excellent dentist to not be able to detect an excellent facial about three years after I got them? I ask that, because I've been through several dentists and I felt that he was one of the best I'd had among some very good dentists.

Thanks,

Tom

If you feel this question is worthy of a thread, I'll post it with your answer, or you can. Maybe folks would like some stories of positive experiences with dentists.

 

[Laurence Stein DDS]

Hi Tom,

What the heck, we'll just make this the catch all thread for dental questions!

Not quite sure what you were asking but here goes.

On rare occasion, some fillilngs just seem to maintain their shape and color for years. It's not common but possible. Yes, it is possible for a dentist to miss it on first glance. Perhaps the facial fillings simply matched the expected color of the eroded or receeded areas and thereby looked...natural.

Every once and a while I also see a 30 year old silver amalgam that looks as good today as it did when it was placed. Part of it may be a low corrosive mouth chemistry. Part of it is the particular amalgam used. (Yes, there are many combinations of silver, copper, zinc, platinum and mercury and they are all called amalgam) Some of the old copper containing alloys seem to hold up rather well.

Composite fillings tend to wear at a faster rate than other fillings but every once and a while, everything seems to "click" and the composite seems to last for years.

I really can't explain why this happens....just that it does. It's kind of unusual though. When you consider that these fillings are being placed into an warm, wet, dark, environment with thousands of stressful cycles per day it's a wonder that anything holds up.

Hope everything keeps working.

Laurence Stein, DDS