Tooth tips: 5 bits of advice for looking after your dental crown

Dental crowns are caps that are installed to protect damaged teeth, strengthen weakened teeth and produce an appealing aesthetic.

People often receive this treatment if their tooth/teeth are badly damaged and require comprehensive treatment. Your highly skilled and professional dentist will X-ray the affected area before commencing root canal treatment. Once the root canal segment is complete, the dentist will then take an impression of the affected tooth before fitting with a top quality impression.

This particular treatment comes with multiple benefits, including enhanced function and visual appeal, but they have to be taken care of to ensure they achieve the best results.

With this in mind, here are five imperative tips for taking care of your dental crowns:

1. Look after your oral hygiene

You should be taking the necessary steps to look after your oral hygiene regardless, but this becomes more important once such a procedure has been conducted!

You know the deal: brushing twice daily, flossing, rinsing your mouth with antibacterial mouthwash - all these go a long way to ensuring your oral hygiene is in top form post-procedure.

2. Avoid risky foods

There are numerous foods you should avoid eating in the period after you have received this treatment. Basically, anything that is far too crunchy, sticky, chewy, spongy etc. is off the menu for the time being.

After all, you have had something new installed into your gums - that installation could be harmfully affected by something that pulls on it or gets stuck to it.

Following on from avoiding foods that could harm it, be sure to maintain a healthy diet in the weeks after your treatment so that you don’t expose the treated area to any nasty chemicals that are found in things like lollies and soft drinks.

3. Give the vices the flick

We all know that vices are bad for all our general health and oral hygiene, so it’s never a bad idea to give them up. But, if you need extra encouragement, dental crowns are the perfect justification!

Habits like drinking excessively, smoking, binge eating and even eating unhealthy foods are all bad for your oral health, and anything that’s bad for your oral health is going to be bad for your post-treatment recovery!

4. Watch the grinding

Bruxism and even slightly excessive grinding is bad for your teeth. In fact, dentists have seen an increase in patients requiring broken teeth to be fixed after excessive grinding throughout the pandemic.

Excessive grinding could have a negative impact on your teeth, and not to mention your dental crown, which could become worn down as a result of too much continuous pressure.

If possible, try to wear a mouth guard or protector to avoid grinding too hard on those sensitive teeth and new impression.

5. See your dentist

This doesn’t mean you have to go every week, but seeing your dentist at some stage post-treatment is a great way to ensure your recovery and fitting is going and working exactly as intended.

Not only this, but your dentist will be able to provide any updates on your general oral health and provide you with useful ongoing advice on how to keep your new fitting safe and effective.

See, looking after your dental crown really isn’t the most difficult thing in the world, all you have to do is ensure that you keep the area clean, avoid bad foods/poor habits and check in with your dentist - the benefits will start to show in no time!

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