Crown Came Off: What To Do and Why Dental Cement Matters
If a crown has come off, the useful questions are what to do in the next few hours, whether any at-home fix is safe, and what the dentist will need to decide. Dental cement is what the dentist uses to bond a crown to the tooth; the kits sold for home use are a different material and a different purpose.
What to do first
- Keep the crown. If it is intact, the dentist may be able to re-cement it rather than make a new one.
- Rinse it gently and store it somewhere safe and dry. Do not try to clean the inside of it.
- Look at the tooth underneath. If it is broken, dark or painful, that changes the plan.
- Avoid chewing on that side. The exposed tooth is often sensitive and can fracture.
- Contact a dentist. If the tooth is painful, swollen or bleeding, treat it as urgent.
Home repair kits: what they are and what they are not
Temporary cement sold in pharmacies is designed to hold a crown for a short period until you can be seen. It is not the material used to bond a crown permanently, and it is not a substitute for an examination.
Household adhesives must never be used. They are not made for the mouth, they can damage the crown and the tooth, and they can make it impossible to re-cement the crown properly afterwards.
Even with a temporary kit, the crown can seat slightly wrong. That changes the bite, traps bacteria at the margin and can lead to decay under the crown, which is the most common reason a re-cemented crown fails again.
Why a crown comes off
Usually something has changed underneath rather than the cement simply failing. Decay at the margin, a fracture in the remaining tooth, loss of retention where the tooth was short to begin with, or a bite that loads the crown heavily are the common causes. A crown that repeatedly comes off is a sign the underlying problem has not been addressed.
Where the tooth beneath has broken down significantly, a new crown may not be possible and other options are discussed, including root canal treatment first, or replacement with a bridge or implant if the tooth cannot be kept.
What the dentist will assess
Whether the crown itself is intact and still fits, how much sound tooth remains, whether decay is present, whether the tooth is vital or root treated, and how the bite loads that tooth. Those answers decide between re-cementing, making a new crown, or a different treatment altogether.
Materials and how crowns are made are covered on our dental crowns page, including zirconium and E.max options. How long a crown can be expected to serve is discussed in our guide on how long dental crowns last, and the trade-offs are set out in the disadvantages of dental crowns.
If you are already a Revitalize patient
Contact us rather than improvising a repair, so the treating team can advise and record what has happened. What is covered is set out on the treatment guarantee page, and the treatment process page explains follow-up after you return home.
Treatment arranged through Revitalize takes place in Izmir with contracted providers named in your written plan; see our contracted surgeons and specialists and contracted hospitals pages.