Braces and Crowns

[kbh75]

Hello everyone. I get my braces Monday. I went yesterday to have spacers put around the three teeth I have crowns on. That has been fun.

At any rate, they said they will put special brackets on the crowns.

Anyone have any experience with crowns and braces? I am worried they will be harmed by the braces and then I will have to pay even more $$$ to get that fixed!

[EWUgal15]

I've read that brackets alone sometimes don't stay cemented to crowns very well. Usually, a band that surrounds the whole tooth is used with a bracket on the outside for the wire to pass through and engage the bracket for movement (essentially a molar band). It can be a little unsightly if its on a front tooth, but it's better than constantly having to have brackets re-cemented because they keep popping off. This is a really good question for an orthodontist

[ItsFreyja]

Bonding to porcelain crowns is quite routine, though I don't have personal experience with it. Frankly the bigger issue with molar bands, whether on porcelain or enamel, is that plaque and food particles can become trapped between the band and the gum, and effective cleaning of that area can be difficult. Have your ortho talk through his crown bonding procedure (it's a bit different from bonding to enamel) and explain why it's safe for the porcelain, and have him advise you on how to clean those teeth.

[ruca2]

Hi, I have personal experience with this. My front tooth is a crown (#8) and I have a ceramic bracket on it. Your ortho does have to treat it different than a normal tooth. They should use a different type of adhesive for the crown. Personally, my crown bracket popped off a week after it's initial placement and one other time a few months in. My ortho just needed to experiment with different bonding techniques to figure out the right one for me. It's been on for about 4 more months now without coming off so I think we have it correct now.

[WiredWeaver]

I have a crown on a premolar. Initially, the ortho has placed a bracket on the tooth, but it popped off after a couple of days. I had a molar band put on that tooth at my first adjustment. I spend a little extra time each night cleaning around the band with my toothbrush and a sulcus brush dipped in mouthwash. Haven't had any problems with it so far

[sirwired]

Heh; when my wife had braces a few decades back, her ortho didn't use them new-fangled bonded brackets at all! Every tooth got a band! And since there's no way to put spacers between every tooth, the ortho used a little device that POUNDED each band into place. My wife said it hurt like *bleep!*... I'm surprised each kid didn't get nitrous on brace-day!

[plugnickel69]

Had brackets placed on two lower crowned premolars. When each came off after a few weeks, they sand-blasted, re-attached, and the brackets stayed on for the duration without any further problem. No damage to the crowns.

[kbh75]

Thanks everyone. You have made me feel better about the crowns. :)