Crowns Threw Off My Bite and Gave Me Hives
Question submitted by: Beth
I had 10 zirconia crowns done for a smile makeover. Ever since, this has been a disaster. The crowns didn’t fit right and my mouth and jaw hurt all the time. At first the dentist said that I just needed to get used to crowns, but after a few weeks I was hurting worse. He told me to come back in and ground them down. Not only did that not help with the bite situation, but I developed hives that are still here. Can I be allergic to the zirconia dust? How do I get these crowns fixed?
Beth
Dear Beth,
There are a few things which bother me about this and hint to me that your dentist is in over his head. But, let’s address your questions directly first.
Could you be allergic to Zirconia dust? I doubt it. Though there is little evidence of zirconia allergies, I will never say that no one can be allergic to zirconia. The human body is very complex and everyone is different. Why I don’t think so in your case is because the dust is made of zirconia. The hives would have shown up even before the dust and once the dust was gone would have cleared up. This is more likely an issue of burning mouth syndrome.
Zirconia is a tough material, which makes for strong metal-free crowns. Your dentist grinding them down would have been a stressful appointment. Burning mouth syndrome is linked to stress.
How do you get these fixed? You’ll need to get a second opinion from a dentist who knows what they’re doing. Look for someone with training in occlusion, which is how your teeth come together and aligning a bite properly.
I would either look for a prosthodontist or a dentist with training from one of the following institutes:
- The L.D. Pankey Institute in Florida
- The Dawson Academy in Florida
- Spear Education in Arizona
- The Las Vegas Institute for Advanced Dental Studies in Nevada
When your bite is off, it can lead to painful TMJ disorder. One other thing. You said you got these crowns because you wanted a smile makeover. Unless you already had dental crowns on these teeth, the standard procedure for smile makeover is to get porcelain veneers. These are thin wafers and require hardly any of your tooth structure be removed, whereas dental crown require your teeth to be ground down.
This blog is brought to you by a top-rated prosthodontist in Tucson, Dr. Howard Steinberg.
