I needed a dental crown on a front tooth. My dentist recently got this new CEREC machine and told me that it would give me the crown in just one appointment. We were close to the holidays so I thought that would be a good idea. It was going okay until the next day. I was going to a friends house and the crown literally just fell off as I parked my car. I was absolutely frantic. My friend called her dentist who worked with CEREC crowns. He got me in right away and said that the crown wasn’t bonded on properly. Once it was bonded on, I noticed it is slightly longer than my other front tooth. The color is a bit off as well. I went in to see my dentist the following day and he told me he’d redo the whole thing free of charge. My question is should I trust him or should I just ask for a refund and get this done by someone else?

Patricia

Dear Patricia,

It would be hard to answer that question precisely because I don’t know anything about your dentist and his specific training. I can tell you the matching a crown on a front tooth is exceptionally difficult even for skilled cosmetic dentists, so I am not surprised it does not match correctly in just one go. Often, it takes several try ins and tweeks before a front tooth is the exact shade you need.

This is even harder with CEREC crowns because these are milled out of a single block of porcelain. A dentist will need advanced skills in working in stains.

Your dentist has offered to redo the crown. This tells me he is honest and cares more about getting it right than getting money. That is a good sign. Wanting to get it right is not always enough though. If you want to give him a second chance on this, I recommend that you tell him you only want h im to place it with a temporary try in paste so you can be sure you are pleased wtih the results before it is permanetely bonded again.

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