I have a friend in Shanghai who was given a root canal on an upper canine, with no discussion before hand. She now has to decide if she gets a crown or just a filling. From the front the tooth looks almost unchanged after the root canal, and she didn't have any problems with the tooth before.
Her dentist recommends she gets a crown to stop the tooth form breaking later on and cover any discoloration that occurs, but she's not sure if she should take her dentist's advice because before the root canal he didn't discuss it and what would follow.
From looking around on the internet I have come across opinions ranging from "A root canal should always be crowned" to "On a front tooth, the stresses on a tooth aren't vertical but horizontal, so a crown will actually weaken a root canal tooth at the neck of the tooth and make it more susceptible to breaking off completely - if it's a front tooth. I would try bleaching, and if that didn't work, I would correct the discoloration with porcelain veneers instead of crowns".
Would it be ok leaving it uncrowned and then trying internal bleaching if it discolors, and then veneers or crowns if the bleaching didn't work? Or should she just have it crowned now?
Her dentist recommends she gets a crown to stop the tooth form breaking later on and cover any discoloration that occurs, but she's not sure if she should take her dentist's advice because before the root canal he didn't discuss it and what would follow.
From looking around on the internet I have come across opinions ranging from "A root canal should always be crowned" to "On a front tooth, the stresses on a tooth aren't vertical but horizontal, so a crown will actually weaken a root canal tooth at the neck of the tooth and make it more susceptible to breaking off completely - if it's a front tooth. I would try bleaching, and if that didn't work, I would correct the discoloration with porcelain veneers instead of crowns".
Would it be ok leaving it uncrowned and then trying internal bleaching if it discolors, and then veneers or crowns if the bleaching didn't work? Or should she just have it crowned now?