Tips to Help You Maintain Your Porcelain Dental Crown
Dental crowns are a popular dental solution that can provide a host of benefits for the patients who receive them. When properly cared for, they can last for many years. The question many patients have, though, is this: how exactly should you care for your porcelain dental crown? Here are the three most important things you can do to protect your porcelain crown and ensure that they continue to benefit you for as long as possible.
Dental Crowns: Why They Matter
Porcelain is a strong, durable material that can fulfill a variety of important roles in dental care. The material can also be colored to blend in perfectly with your natural teeth, providing the most aesthetically-pleasing solution for many dental problems. That’s why porcelain crowns are such a popular choice for providing cosmetic makeovers for discolored teeth, restoring teeth after a root canal, or capping off a dental implant.
Unfortunately, porcelain crowns are not entirely indestructible, and can be chipped or broken when subjected to excessive abuse. And since that sort of damage would necessitate further dental care and perhaps even costly replacement crowns, it’s important to guard against chips, breaks, and other types of harm.
The Three Best Ways to Protect Your Porcelain Crowns
The three most important things you can do to preserve and protect your crowns are:
Maintain Regular Dental Hygiene
One of the best ways to protect your porcelain crown is to focus on protecting the teeth around it. To that end, you need to make sure that you continue to maintain your normal dental hygiene routine. That means brushing at least twice a day, but it also means flossing and using a dentist-approved mouthwash to rid your mouth of harmful bacteria that could cause tooth decay. Any decay could potentially weaken the area around the crown and cause it to become loose or even fall off if that tooth gets infected.
Avoid Hard Foods
Porcelain crowns may be tough, but they’re not indestructible. If you’re one of those people who loves to chew on ice, hard candy, or other tough food and objects, you should try to break that habit. The last thing you want to do is put so much pressure on that crown that it cracks or is otherwise damaged.
It’s also wise to avoid using your teeth as a tool. If you regularly use them to open packages or take caps off bottles, you should stop that habit as well. There are tools to do those kinds of jobs.
Continue Your Regular Checkups
Finally, it’s important to continue to maintain your regular dental checkup schedule. When you continue to get those regular checkups from the best dentist in midtown Manhattan, you can better ensure that any potential problems with your porcelain crowns are addressed in the timeliest manner possible.
To learn more about how to care for your porcelain crowns, or to schedule your next appointment for dental care, contact Ebenezer Dental today.