If your crown just came off, cracked, feels loose, or the tooth underneath has started to hurt, this page is for you. Most crown failures are fixable quickly, many in a single visit at our Mesa office. Here’s what to do right now, why it happened, and how we decide between re-cementing the crown you have and making a new one.
The short version: keep the crown, don’t chew on that side, and call 602-932-2555. Tell us your crown came off or broke, it’s a situation we work to see quickly, and calling early in the day gives us the most room to help.
What to do right now
Five steps protect the tooth until you’re in the chair:
- Find the crown and keep it. If it came off in one piece, rinse it, dry it, and put it in a clean container or bag. Bring it with you, if the crown and the tooth are both intact, we may be able to clean and re-cement it the same visit, which is the fastest and least expensive fix there is.
- Don’t chew on that side. The tooth under a crown is shaped down and not built to take chewing forces exposed. Biting on it can crack what’s left, which turns a simple re-cement into a bigger repair.
- Keep the area clean. Brush gently around the exposed tooth and rinse with warm salt water. Sensitivity to cold, heat, or sweet is normal for exposed dentin, uncomfortable, but not a catastrophe.
- Use pharmacy temporary cement if you need to. Over-the-counter dental cement (or denture adhesive in a pinch) can hold a crown in place for a day or two. Never superglue or household adhesive, it damages crown and tooth, and it can make a proper re-cement impossible later.
- Call us. 602-932-2555. We’ll tell you anything else to do based on your specific situation and get you scheduled as fast as the day allows.
Why crowns come loose, crack, or fall off
Crowns are built to last 15 to 25 years, but they don’t last forever, and the failure almost always has a findable cause. The four we see most in Mesa:
- Decay at the margin. The most common reason crowns fail. The edge where the crown meets the tooth, usually at or just under the gumline, traps plaque. Decay starting there undermines the tooth the crown is cemented to until it loses its grip. Sometimes there’s no warning until it lets go.
- Old cement. Crown cement slowly dissolves over years, especially on work placed 15 or more years ago. The crown comes off clean, the tooth looks fine, and the fix is often a straightforward re-cement.
- Bite forces and grinding. Nighttime grinding loads crown materials over and over. Given enough years it can crack a ceramic crown, break the cement seal, or fracture the tooth underneath. If a broken crown and grinding are part of the same story, a night guard belongs in the replacement conversation.
- Trauma. An olive pit, a popcorn kernel, ice, a hit to the mouth, any of these can crack a crown or shear it off. Trauma cases always get an X-ray, because the force that broke the crown sometimes cracks the root too, and that changes the plan.
Re-cement or new crown? How we decide
That’s the first question we answer at your visit, and the answer is honest math, not upselling.
Re-cement is usually the right call when the crown came off intact, the tooth underneath has no new decay, the fit is still precise, and the crown isn’t cracked or worn through. We clean the crown and the tooth, check the bite, and cement it back. One short appointment.
A new crown is the right call when there’s decay under the old crown (we remove it, rebuild the tooth, and make a new crown), the crown itself is cracked or the porcelain has fractured, the fit was poor from the start, a crown that keeps coming off is telling you something, or the tooth has changed enough that the old crown no longer seats.
In borderline cases, decay removed, plenty of healthy tooth remaining, the real question becomes whether the tooth needs a new crown at all, or a smaller restoration. That’s the same calculus we walk through on our crown vs. filling page, and occasionally a small defect at a crown margin can be repaired with a filling if the fit is otherwise sound.
The evaluation is an exam plus an X-ray, and we show you both. If your old crown can go back on, we’ll tell you. If it needs replacing, you’ll see the reason on the screen before we start anything.
Same-day replacement: a new crown in one visit
If you do need a new crown, here’s the part that matters most in a broken-crown situation: we mill crowns in-house. The full sequence, preparation, digital scan, milling, fitting, bonding, happens in a single appointment of about two and a half to three hours.
- No temporary crown. The traditional process sends you home for two weeks in a temporary, on a tooth that just failed once. Temporaries come loose, limit what you can eat, and mean a second appointment.
- No second appointment. One visit, one numbing, one block of time off work. For Mesa patients commuting to Phoenix, Tempe, or Sky Harbor, that’s the difference between a manageable day and a two-week disruption.
- The tooth is protected today. You leave with the permanent crown the same afternoon. No gap where something else goes wrong.
Same-day milling fits most molar and premolar replacements; some front-tooth and complex rebuild cases are still better served by a lab-fabricated crown, if that’s yours, we’ll tell you and explain why. The full process is laid out on our Mesa dental crowns page.
We evaluate crowns placed by other offices
A large share of the broken and loose crowns we see were placed somewhere else, another Mesa practice, another state, another decade. That’s fine. You don’t need to go back to the original office, and you don’t need your records in hand to be seen (bring them if you have them; if not, our own X-rays tell us most of what we need).
What we’ll do: examine the crown and tooth, take an X-ray, tell you what we find, and put the plan in writing before any treatment. If the original work is sound and just needs re-cementing, that’s what we’ll recommend. If the crown failed because of how it was made or fitted, we’ll show you that too, plainly.
Dr. Joshua Baer and Dr. Carlos Rogel handle crown evaluations at our Mesa office. Dr. Rogel consults fully in Spanish for patients who prefer it.
What repair or replacement costs
Re-cementing an intact crown is the least expensive outcome by a wide margin, a short appointment, no lab work. We quote the exact fee before we start, and it’s a fraction of replacement cost.
A new crown runs $900-$1,500 depending on material. Where you land in that range depends on the material selected, which tooth, and the condition of the tooth underneath. If the tooth needs additional work first, decay removal, a core build-up, those procedures are quoted separately in your written estimate, line by line, before anything happens. The full breakdown is on our dental crown cost page for Mesa.
Insurance. Most dental plans cover crowns at roughly 50% after the deductible, up to the plan’s annual maximum, and re-cementing is often covered similarly or better. Waiting periods can apply on newer plans. We verify your benefits before treatment so the number on your estimate is real.
Financing. Monthly payment plans are available through Cherry. Details on our financing page.
Broken crown questions we hear every week
Is a lost or broken crown a dental emergency?
Urgent, but rarely a middle-of-the-night emergency. A crown off a tooth usually isn’t dangerous unless there’s severe pain, swelling, fever, or a bad taste, those signs mean call right away. Otherwise, protect the tooth and get seen within a few days. Don’t wait weeks: an exposed tooth can decay fast or crack, and neighboring teeth can drift into the gap, which complicates re-cementing. Sooner is almost always cheaper.
Can I glue the crown back on myself?
With real temporary dental cement from a pharmacy, yes, as a bridge to your appointment, and we suggest it above. With superglue or any household adhesive, no. Those glues aren’t made for use in the mouth, they can irritate or burn tissue, and they contaminate the inside of the crown in ways that can prevent a proper re-cement later. If you can’t find dental cement, denture adhesive is the second-best option.
My crown came off and nothing hurts. Can it wait?
No pain is the most deceptive version of this problem. It usually means the tooth had a root canal or the dentin simply isn’t reacting, not that everything is fine. The exposed tooth is still collecting plaque in a shape that’s nearly impossible to clean, and if your teeth drift even slightly, the crown may stop fitting. Get it evaluated within days, not months. Waiting is how a simple re-cement becomes a full replacement.
What if the tooth broke off inside the crown?
If the crown came off with a piece of tooth, or the whole visible part of the tooth, inside it, we need an X-ray to see how much healthy tooth and root remains. Some of these teeth can be rebuilt and re-crowned. Some have fractured too deep to be predictably saved, and in those cases we’ll walk through the replacement options honestly. Either way, bring the crown and any fragments with you.
Will the repair appointment hurt?
A re-cement on a healthy tooth usually needs little or no numbing, it’s a clean-and-cement appointment. If we find decay or the tooth needs preparation for a new crown, you’ll be fully numb for that work, same as any crown visit. Most patients are surprised by how uneventful the whole thing is.
Get it handled this week
A broken, loose, or lost crown is one of the most fixable problems in dentistry, but the fix gets bigger and more expensive the longer the tooth sits unprotected. If you’re in Mesa or the East Valley with a crown in a baggie, we can help.
Glisten Dental Mesa · 633 N Gilbert Rd, Mesa, AZ 85203.
Call 602-932-2555 to book a consultation, or use the /contact/ page.