Free metal crown or Porcelain crown for £825

[Eleano]

Hi Mumsnet,

First world problem here... I've got a tooth with a crown that breaks every five years. I've been getting porcelain crowns until now (about £800-£900) so the crown basically costs me about £200 a year. I just found out that because I'm pregnant I can get a metal crown for free this time and the dentist said it will last.

The tooth is at the back of my mouth, 2nd to last but it's on the bottom jaw so it would show when I open my mouth.

Should I continue to opt for porcelain or would it be mad to not get the free NHS crown?

I'm very aware that many people would get metal because that's all they can afford (that would have been me a few years ago) and I'm aware that I'm lucky to have an alternative option.

You could get the free crown but if you hate it change it for porcelain?

For porcelain, i would never spend that much money! I would at least want Zircona or Emax for that cost. So for that reason, I would choose metal. Not to mention, porcelain is basically just fused to a metal crown anyway. So you’re paying that money just for it to look white and theres always a risk of the porcelain fracturing off the metal anyway.

I have a number (4) of porcelain crowns and some are 10 years old or more. I’d query why they are breaking so much?

Do you grind your teeth at night? Would a mouth guard help that as it can cause huge wear and tear especially on molars?

Honestly I won’t go metal until I really can’t afford if ~ I just hate the look. I know I’m lucky to be able to afford it, but that’s a priority for me.

@ImAGullibleIdiot thats a lot of work and poses risks to the tooth’s vitality if OP were to do this as the tooth would need to be re-prepared and more tooth tissue removed.

DS has 2 metal crowns on his back teeth and porcelain on the front ones. Our (very expensive private, so they could have made more money with different advice) dentist told us that they only recommended metal for back teeth, not porcelain, because the porcelain ones are more prone to breakage due to the added chewing forces.

On that basis, I think you've been badly advised to ever have porcelain ones at the back.

Also as far as I understand it (but I'm not a dentist), a crown shouldn't keep being changed, it risks infection every time the damaged tooth is exposed.

I have a porcelain crown on one of my back molars which is 33 years old! Guess I've been lucky.

It's a tricky one, OP. I'm not sure how obvious a metal one would be, but I'd be tempted.

Why are they breaking? Like other PPS, I've had mine for decades. I know toffees are bad for crowns, are you crunching really hard stuff? I don't eat meat so I guess I'm not as hard on my molars but I do eat loads of nuts.

The dentist said it broke because it was very thin because the tooth underneath has been filed down to be almost flat so there's not much support to apply a crown and also because I grind my teeth at night (I've just started using a mouth guard). The crown was done by a different dentist so the current one has no reason to cover previous mistakes.