[ono8ono]

I just had my implant #19 a month ago and I have to wait 4 months to have a crown to put on top of the implant. My dentist told me I have a choice of either procelain or gold. From what i learnt on line, gold crown is better for molar and procelain is better for front teeth. Since mine is a molar, so is gold crown better? Anyone could comment on the difference? Thank you.

[mrsD]

My dentist doesn't offer gold crowns anymore.

Gold is really way expensive now, and out of reach of many people.

[Bryanna]

Hi ono8ono,

The restorative material that is used for the crown restoration that covers the top of the dental implant is limited to the type of implant that was used because there are many different types of dental implants and each with a bit of a different restorative approach. So your dentist may have offered you the options that pertain to the particular implant that was used.

The difference in the strengths between metal and porcelain depends on the metals and the type of porcelain that is used. Gold is a very high noble metal but very soft metal. To be able to mold it, other metals have to be incorporated into the gold to make it into a solid form. Depending on what the dentist specifically orders from the lab, the gold portion of the crown may be as little as 60% gold and the rest would be platinum, palladium and silver. Some labs will use different metals to add to the gold to reduce the cost to the dentist. This decrease in cost is not usually passed on to the patient. I think many people are under the impression that when they have a gold crown that they have am actual "gold" crown. The fact is that the crown is only partially "gold" and if they were to sell it on the open market it would only be worth a few dollars.

Porcelain materials vary also. Zirconium which is actually a metal but has the appearance of porcelain is extremely durable for posterior teeth. Emax is a porcelain that is not as durable as Zirconium but it has a nice aesthetic appearance.

Your dentist needs to be the one to recommend the best option for your particular case as he has to take into consideration your occlusal plane (bite) and the health as well as the restorations of the teeth that this tooth will be biting against. Some dental materials will hold up better while other will wear down quicker depending upon what they are chewing against.

Regarding the cost of the crown... dental offices have a written fee schedule for each procedure and restoration. Those fees will vary from their norm due to charity work and due to their participation in certain insurance plans by which they are governed to charge a certain fee and/or not above a certain fee per procedure/restoration. Dental fees are already inflated to take into consideration the cost of inflation. That is one reason why dentistry is generally so expensive to begin with.

Here is a brief but informative explanation of dental implants and the restorative aspect from Columbia University College of Dental Medicine.

http://www.simplestepsdental.com/SS/...5546/pr.3.html

Hope this info helps.
It is best to discuss the restorative options with your dentist and mutually decide on what your expectations are and what would be best in your case.

Bryanna




QUOTE=ono8ono;1186693]I just had my implant #19 a month ago and I have to wait 4 months to have a crown to put on top of the implant. My dentist told me I have a choice of either procelain or gold. From what i learnt on line, gold crown is better for molar and procelain is better for front teeth. Since mine is a molar, so is gold crown better? Anyone could comment on the difference? Thank you.[/QUOTE]

[ono8ono]

Originally Posted by mrsD

My dentist doesn't offer gold crowns anymore.

Gold is really way expensive now, and out of reach of many people.

Thanks for the info.

[ono8ono]

Thank you for spending time to write such detail explanations. Really appreciated.

You are right about the gold crown misconception.. I always thought the gold crown is 100% gold. I'm going to ask my dentist what kind of procelain material is best for me.

Originally Posted by Bryanna

Hi ono8ono,

The restorative material that is used for the crown restoration that covers the top of the dental implant is limited to the type of implant that was used because there are many different types of dental implants and each with a bit of a different restorative approach. So your dentist may have offered you the options that pertain to the particular implant that was used.

The difference in the strengths between metal and porcelain depends on the metals and the type of porcelain that is used. Gold is a very high noble metal but very soft metal. To be able to mold it, other metals have to be incorporated into the gold to make it into a solid form. Depending on what the dentist specifically orders from the lab, the gold portion of the crown may be as little as 60% gold and the rest would be platinum, palladium and silver. Some labs will use different metals to add to the gold to reduce the cost to the dentist. This decrease in cost is not usually passed on to the patient. I think many people are under the impression that when they have a gold crown that they have am actual "gold" crown. The fact is that the crown is only partially "gold" and if they were to sell it on the open market it would only be worth a few dollars.

Porcelain materials vary also. Zirconium which is actually a metal but has the appearance of porcelain is extremely durable for posterior teeth. Emax is a porcelain that is not as durable as Zirconium but it has a nice aesthetic appearance.

Your dentist needs to be the one to recommend the best option for your particular case as he has to take into consideration your occlusal plane (bite) and the health as well as the restorations of the teeth that this tooth will be biting against. Some dental materials will hold up better while other will wear down quicker depending upon what they are chewing against.

Regarding the cost of the crown... dental offices have a written fee schedule for each procedure and restoration. Those fees will vary from their norm due to charity work and due to their participation in certain insurance plans by which they are governed to charge a certain fee and/or not above a certain fee per procedure/restoration. Dental fees are already inflated to take into consideration the cost of inflation. That is one reason why dentistry is generally so expensive to begin with.

Here is a brief but informative explanation of dental implants and the restorative aspect from Columbia University College of Dental Medicine.

http://www.simplestepsdental.com/SS/...5546/pr.3.html

Hope this info helps.
It is best to discuss the restorative options with your dentist and mutually decide on what your expectations are and what would be best in your case.

Bryanna




QUOTE=ono8ono;1186693]I just had my implant #19 a month ago and I have to wait 4 months to have a crown to put on top of the implant. My dentist told me I have a choice of either procelain or gold. From what i learnt on line, gold crown is better for molar and procelain is better for front teeth. Since mine is a molar, so is gold crown better? Anyone could comment on the difference? Thank you.

[/QUOTE]

[Bryanna]

ono8ono,

You are welcome!

Yea in general people see gold and think... I've got gold in my mouth! The dentists who keep the "gold" crowns from old bridge work or extracted teeth sell them to a refinery. But since the amount paid for the "gold" is based on the weight of the actual gold content, the dentist has to accumulate a lot of gold crowns to make them worth selling. In general dental practices, the crowns are kept in a jar in the lab and maybe once every couple of years or more the refinery picks them up. I've had patients want their gold crown returned to them, once it's been removed from their tooth, so they could sell it on their own. They often report back to me saying.... I only got a few dollars for it!

Yes, please speak to your dentist about the restorative options as he is the best one to gauge what is in your best interest. If you want to go with a gold crown or a porcelain fused to gold crown, my recommendation is to request that the dentist tell the dental lab to use as much real gold as possible to avoid using as little of the other less compatible metals as possible to mix in with the gold.

Bryanna





QUOTE=ono8ono;1186767]Thank you for spending time to write such detail explanations. Really appreciated.

You are right about the gold crown misconception.. I always thought the gold crown is 100% gold. I'm going to ask my dentist what kind of procelain material is best for me.


[/QUOTE][/QUOTE]

[agudeza]

I'm new to this site but somewhere I read you were from NJ? In any case, I am too and I am at wits end with my dental experiences this past year. I am an unfortunate person who needed alot of procedures in my life and eventually settled for a full upper and a partial lower. I had all my frontal teeth down low. 8 of them. I have been in the chair at dentist offices for denture replacements 4 times in 5 years because of the poor communication and arrogance of the dentists I've dealt with. If I had time to tell the stories you'd wonder how this is even possible. I went last year to crown my lower teeth with porcelain and get a flexible lower and new upper. The guy would not do the crowns first and did the plate and partial. But my primary reason was to get the crowns. I already had a plate and partial but he said I would need a new one anyway. But, it is pretty stupid to make the new plates first when the crowns still were not made. Now, I returned to the dentist this year and he was supposed to do the lower crowns and his concession for his stupid mistake caused such an argument between me him and his office that he agreed no additional cost would be on me for any work needed on the upper or lower plates to get everything to integrate. Well, he is not working at this facility now. Likley due to people complaining of his poor choices. But nontheless, the dentist I deal with now worked there last year too but he did not treat me then. I came for lower crowns and he too insists I need to do the upper and lower plates. But he is at least doing the lower crowns first and has since started and put a temp bridge across my lowers. I'll get back to that later. But the first issue is the itemized treatment plan shows me getting charge for my plates again and they have no idea the issue with the previously employed dentist who screwed up my treatment last year or they are trying to sweep it under the rug. I'm beside myself about this and cannot even tell you how angry. Not only that, but the current dentist says he is doing this specific type of bridge called metal to porcelain fused and then the lower partial is gonna be a porcelain to metal fused prosteticthing. This is NOT what I asked for. This is NOT acceptable. What is wrong with dentists. My treatment plan specificall says felzible partial and metal is out of the question. Why is their arrogane making them make choices for patients against what they say they want. I am borderline ready to sue these people. They DON"T communicate with patients. The assume we understand these wicked terms they throw at us while we sit in a chair all hopped up on antistethics and we patients admit we are ignorant to these terms but these dentists are playing that very same ignorance card thinking we know what the heck they are even talking about.

I researched these terms when I went home after he already grinded all my lower teeth and put a temp on. I never saw such garbage in my life. A metal to porcelain fused bridge across my lower frontal teeth is the worst thing I ever saw and the prostetic option for the lower does not even resemble a flexible partial. SO he deviates from what we agreed on plus he does not explain these porcelain crown are loaded with metal until he has already grinded my teeth. I have to say that I need to use dental insurance for some of the work but I agreed to pay for whatever isnt covered but the fact remains. I do not care if I am not a dentist. I know what I want. I know enough to know metal at the level he is choosing to use will be the worst looking thing and nobody would choose this if they know they have other options. No other options were discussed because these dentists want to take the easy road for themselves and working a little extra just ruins their day. It's like the auto mechanic who has to work hard on one repair to earn $1500 in 4 hours but instead he prefers to do 15 brake jobs in 4 hours @ $200 each. Dentists care more about the money they make and save and have shown me they do not care about how a aptient feels. It cannot possibly be they think people want to chunks of metal over a clean white piece of porcelain. I'd take a white acrylic temporary over that ugly looking metal.
Anyway, this current dentist didn't do his job, that's for sure. No short term or long term goals of the patient were discussed. That is the job of the dentist to gather these facts. And yet we patients are falling into traps with dentists all the time and I have read so many people going through similar situations because dentists do not discuss details regarding these things in almost all cases. A guy finds out his crown has half metal and shows when he smiles but never knew this until after he got home and looked into the mirror. And this is not isolated insidents with specific dentists. It's the majority. And those who are good enough to be open and honest with patients and do their job are far and few between. The rest are using some cookie cutter process to put everyone through a meat grinder as if each patient gets a porcelain fused to metal crown and no other options presented, unless the patient is as knowledgeable as a dental technician and says something. Dentists should be doing more work to earn that high rate of pay they charge as most are not reasonably priced for the level of services provided in the majority of places I've seen.
I am so sorry to go on and on but It's my mouth. My money. My Insurance. MY CHOICE. Yet that is not how most dentists approach a patient and it's getting so old to witness this so many times at so many places I've been to in the last 5 years.

BTW, not one dentist or denture lab has gotten it right yet. Many times people go home settling for less than what they expected or wanted and dentists do not get the scrutiny they deserve since most people do not speak up. I would like to see one good dentist priced reasonably that knows how to do their job in the South Jersey area. Because I do not believe many, if any, exist. They think their skills with the tools makes them so great but when they don't take a patients goals into consideration they end up putting a bunch of metal in someone's mouth without thinking it through and the patient may end up having an allergy to nickel or a noble metal. (hypothetically speaking). A patient does not likely know metal is inside of these crowns so this is just one of the potential disasters.

THAT's how unprofessional most dentists are from MANY experiences. I asked for a flexible partial after my crowns were done last year. But they did not even do the crowns first and came back with a stiff denture with metal hooks that I specifically said I did not want. His response? He said I won't like the flexible anyway. But he did not even discuss my past treatment or else he would have known the flexible was the answer to the ongoing issue I had 2 years prior. I already had a failure with a stiff lower partial with metal hooks and a flexible partial with no metal resolved my issue. The metal hooks made the outer teeth they hooked to wear down and eventually ruined them. Not that a crown would be helful right? A GOOD dentist will crown those teeth that the hooks connect to. That dentist stuck me with what I did not ask for, neglected to do what WAS asked for, and, "I" was stuck paying the bill. I may not be an expert dentist. But due to the incompetance of most dentists, I have become an expert patient.

Again, I need a reasonably priced dentist who knows how to do their job and consult properly before they rip someone's mouth apart and drain their insurance.