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Question:
Allergic Reactions to Crowns: I have a big problem with it comes to accepting crowns in my mouth.
It seems I am allergic to the metals used in crowns and recently had two new crowns put in and the gums in the area are red, swollen and hurt when I chew.
My dentist feels it was because the dentist I was using in the past used some metal with these crowns and it is the metal that I am reacting to.
He said he could change the crowns, which are attached to each other, but added that it is a lot of work and money involved, with no guarantees that the new crowns he would have made up would resolve the problem.
Is there a way of testing the materials used in making up a crown to be sure that I wouldn't react? ...Visitor from NY
Answer:
It sounds like you are allergic to the metal in the crowns. There is usually a small amount of tin in a metal crown.
If you get itchy when you wear costume jewelry, it is usually the tin that causes this. Dentistry now has many beautiful crowns that are very strong and contain no metal, along with a special metal called Captek.
Captek not only does well with people with allergies, but it repels plaque and helps with the health of the gum tissues. Captek is 22K gold, and contains only gold, platinum, and palladium. It is then covered with porcelain and looks very nice.
Empress all-porcelain crowns do well for front teeth, but are sometimes not strong enough for molar teeth. There are 2 other crowns, Procera (Cercon) by Nobel Biocare and Lava by 3-M that contain no metal and are very strong. Both are very beautiful. There is yet another crown called P2Z which is porcelain layered over Procera, in one of them, which is also beautiful.
You can research all of these on the internet to see if you are interested in one of these materials. Be sure that your gum problems are isolated to the teeth with the crowns and have a complete periodontal examination to rule out periodontal problems instead of allergy.
If you react to the costume jewelry, I'm pretty sure that it is a metal allergy and you would do well to invest in non-metal crowns. Hope this helps.
Corinne Scalzitti, DMD, MAGD
Austin Reconstructive Implant Dentistry
Texas Periolase
3900 RR 620 South
Austin, Texas TX 78738
(512) 263-3330
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