Q: What are the advantages or disadvantages of having two crowns done at the same time? My two teeth (#20 and #21) have cracks in them that I’m told are best treated with crowns; one will be gold, the other zirconia.
A: Other than duplicating much of the time and effort required, there would only be two circumstances where making two adjacent crowns consecutively would present disadvantage over make them concurrently:
1 – If a substantial space or positional discrepancy affects either of the teeth, simultaneous fabrication of the two crowns would allow re-allocation of the available without a period where open contacts or other functional impairments would occur, and
2 – If color matching or other esthetic aspects of the crown demand absolute consistency, a laboratory technician will be able to more easily match shape, color, and other visual properties because both crowns could be made and compared side by side if they are made at the same time.
The primary difference, though, is that the patient will be in treatment twice the time, and need to incur twice the number of local anesthetic sessions, if the crowns are made separately rather than at the same time.
— Answer from Mark Bornfeld DDS, a dentist on JustAnswer.
Daily Answer is excerpted from the JustAnswer archives and features information provided by a Expert on JustAnswer.
Follow JustAnswer on Twitter or like us on Facebook to get useful daily updates.
