Dental crowns are an effective treatment for many dental issues. These can range from protecting damaged teeth to long-term cosmetic fixes and will keep smiles looking fantastic for quite a while. Unfortunately, dental crowns may also show signs of discoloration. This can happen for many reasons, and these reasons have solutions appropriate to their cause.
Since dental crown yellowing can occur as a result of many different things, it is prudent to make a few observations and decide what might be causing the discoloration before seeking treatment.
If the crown is damaged, the tooth beneath may become infected or discolored due to anything leaked into and trapped beneath the crown. This is likely the case if a crown's yellowed or stained appearance is not solved by brushing.
Fortunately, a damaged crown is not always the cause of discoloration. If the teeth surrounding a crown are whitened, the crown matching your teeth’s natural color may simply appear darker, yellower or more off-white than the surrounding teeth.
If a crown’s discolored appearance is only noticed following whitening treatment, it may simply be due to the mismatch of teeth colors giving the crown a different appearance than the rest of the smile.
After making a reasonable decision about what might be causing a crown’s discoloration, it will be time to make another decision about the necessary course of action to fix the issue. The correct treatment escalates depending on the cause of a crown’s yellowed appearance.
Although most crowns are made of porcelain, some are not, and can be more susceptible to staining. Porcelain crowns are also not totally immune, and may simply have a tough surface stain that needs some more attention than regular brushing. Stains on crowns can be caused by acidic foods like tomatoes, alcohol or cigarette smoke.
While these stains might hold up to regular brushing and flossing, they cannot penetrate the tough surface of a crown and will likely be solved by a regular, professional dental cleaning. A dentist’s office has the tools needed to safely clean both natural teeth and crowns, restoring their pearly shine.
In some cases, however, more intensive dental care is necessary, as is the case for damaged crowns and the potentially endangered tooth beneath it. When the crown is damaged, treatment will likely involve the replacement of it. The degree of attention that the tooth beneath will require will vary, however.
In some cases, the crown will simply need replacement and the tooth beneath will need some cleaning to remove stains caused by a leak. In more extreme examples, the tooth beneath a damaged crown may have sustained significant damage and decay, and will have died; this, however, tends to create a gray appearance rather than a yellow one.
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