Expert: Frederick R. Liewehr DDS, MS, FICD - 11/7/2008

Question
Dear Sir,

I had a gold crown made 6 years ago. Since a week ago, there's a chemical taste emanating from the area. The dentist noticed a small hole that is present at the base of the crown/between my gum and the crown.

My question is: is the taste/whatever's leaking dangerous to my health? I heard it is glue/bonding that is leaking and that it isn't dangerous...

The thing is, I'm a canadian presently in Korea. In canada, my dental clinic can re-do crowns and without the metal rod (which i'd prefer to someday have removed) and I don't think they can do it in this country- so before having the crown redone here in korea, I'd like to wait until i return to canada.
But if the chemical taste i am tasting is noxious, than I'd better have it redone here, albeit, without having the steel rod removed.

Thanks in advance.

Answer
I have no idea what is producing that chemical taste. If there is an opening, and the crown is leaking, there is probably carious destruction of the tooth under the crown, and it should be removed immediately to prevent further damage, if it is salvageable at all.

If it has a "metal rod" inside, I presume that you mean a post. It serves a purpose retaining the core, which is how the tooth is built back up to size in order to fit a crown. There is nothing wrong with a metal post, nor a metal core. It is possible that you have a composite (plastic) core, and it is deteriorating due to the leakage, and producing the taste. Metal would not do this.

Any dentist, in Korea or elsewhere, can make a crown without a post. In some teeth a post is required to retain the core, as I have just indicated, so you need to trust the dentist's judgment. You can have a fiber post placed, and they are superior in some ways to metal posts. You should not, however, base your thinking on some silly notion that metal is somehow harmful. There is no truth to that, despite what idiocies you may read on the Internet, and anyone who tells you differently is guilty of malpractice.