Long term strategy

[Dental Impatient]

Long story, but I'm at a crossroads and I'm questioning how I should handle my dental care for the back half of my life.

I didn't see a dentist from the time I was 18 to the time I was 25. When I finally did, it was because I needed a root canal, badly. And that experience made me want to get serious. The first guy I saw did a ton of work, something like 19 fillings all at once all around my mouth. My bite was never quite the same, and he made a lot of adjustments over the next few years as I was clacking and it was causing pain. My bite is unbelievably bad now, my teeth no longer fit together. I'm a heavy grinder. I can destroy crowns if they're not the right material with my bite. I wear a store bought night guard now, which helps a lot, but I destroy one about every six months. I have a lot of large fillings in my molars, and now it seems like every time I go in and they find something, I need a new crown. It is costing a fortune to maintain my mouth, and I'm miserable and the teeth still don't look very good. I've had 5 root canals and have 7 crowns so far, as well as an implant on #19.

What are my options at this point? My teeth make me absolutely miserable. There is a long standing thought that although it may be challenging, I might be happier just getting them pulled and having dentures. If the best option is to keep getting all this incremental work until I have at least 16 crowns, what are some methods of keeping the costs from becoming crippling?

 

[MattKW]

Unfortunately dentistry is a form of smash repairs. There is not much that can be guaranteed to work for a long time, and the more complicated your situation, the worse it becomes.
You mention that you crack crowns - this is unusual. I would suggest you talk to a prosthodontist about reassessing your current occlusion, and consider replacing some molar crowns with gold crowns.