Do I need crowns?

I have several old large silver fillings that are not bothering me but my dentist feels they all need crowned is this reasonable?
– Karen in Tennessee

Karen,
Yes, this sounds reasonable. Once a large silver amalgam filling has been in your mouth for a number of years, it begins to break down. It’s reasonable to take out the amalgam and do a crown before the tooth breaks.

And one of the disadvantages of the old-fashioned amalgam fillings is that it is very difficult to tell if they have decay under them until the decay has grown considerably. This is one of the reasons we like to do the white fillings in our office. The standard of care when you have large amalgam fillings would be to replace them with crowns when the margins of the filling begin to separate from the tooth or the margins develop defects.

If you wait until a tooth bothers you, that can be the most expensive way to do dentistry. Once they start bothering you, you will not only need crowns but may also need root canals.

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Read more about porcelain crowns