I hope you will visit me in my Fairfax City dental office the moment you notice your dental crown is broken or fractured.

Crowns do break. The average dental crown in my Fairfax City dental crown office can last a very long time. They've been known to last as long as 15 years. Even longer. And sometimes even shorter.

Even modern crowns, which are sturdier than older ones, may fall apart before you expect them to if you don't take care of them. When you grind your teeth, you are putting pressure on your crowns. People mostly grind their teeth while sleeping though they have no knowledge that they do.

People with crown problems may also chew violently, or they may like to bite hard on ice.

When you fracture a dental crown it may be because of the porcelain. Or at least the part of the crown made from ceramic. Gold and metal amalgams are pretty much immune to fracturing because they are flexible and can adjust to every type of force that your jaws may exert.

These characteristics make such metals perfect for providing a foundation for your dental crowns.

The drawback with metals like gold is their appearance. The answer is to fuse porcelain with the metal crown. Or, to look even better, use metal-free ceramic crowns. This however is susceptible to cracking and breaking.

Porcelain, though, can pass for real teeth because of their translucent quality. But it has difficulty with the great pressures you impose whenever your teeth grind together in chewing.

And another thing. Porcelain is a frail substance so if one area is broken, it spreads to other areas.

Broken porcelain crowns are not good. If you find your crown is cracked, we should ask for another one. Don't ignore damaged crowns. If you do, it could result in an infection. Unless you seek treatment quickly, your crown may be beyond saving. It may result in us replacing every single part of the tooth. Probably with a dental implant.

My office can help you with any crown problems. If you are a Fairfax City resident, and you have a fractured Fairfax City dental crown, I hope you get to my office and let my extremely capable staff and me help fix things.