Learning to Manage Your Dental Problems

The Advantages And Disadvantages Of Using A Gold Dental Crown To Restore A Damaged Molar

28 December 2020 by Charlotte Beck

If one of your molars has been chipped and needs a dental crown, you have a variety of materials to choose from. New all-ceramic crowns offer incredible durability along with a natural appearance, and the older porcelain crowns are also a strong option that can mimic the color of your natural teeth.

When you want to restore a chipped molar, however, the oldest material option of all may be the best choice. Gold has been used for a very long time to restore damaged teeth, and it's still in use today. Gold dental crowns are actually made of a blend of gold and other precious metals like platinum, palladium, and silver. The other precious metals lend some additional strength to the crown. To help you determine whether or not gold is the right choice to restore your chipped molar, read on to learn about its advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages of Gold Crowns for Molar Restoration

The biggest advantage of using a gold dental crown to restore one of your molars is that it's a fairly soft material. Other materials used for crowns, like porcelain, are considerably harder. When you're chewing, your bottom molars and your top molars press against each other with a significant amount of force. If you have a molar restored with a porcelain crown, there's a chance that the hard porcelain can break your natural teeth. Since gold is comparatively much softer, choosing gold for your restoration will help protect your natural teeth.

Despite being softer than other materials, gold has very good durability. Gold dental crowns are less likely to fracture than porcelain ones, since they're more flexible. It's not unusual for gold dental crowns to last for decades, even when they're used to restore a tooth that receives a lot of force (like your molars).

Disadvantages of Gold Crowns for Molar Restoration

One disadvantage of using a gold dental crown to restore a tooth is that it doesn't look anything like a natural tooth. It's visibly gold. Thankfully, this problem doesn't affect molar restorations that much—the only person who is likely to ever see your molars is your dentist.

Another disadvantage of using gold is that you may have an allergic reaction to it. Some people are sensitive to the metals that are used to create a gold dental crown. Your dentist can test for metal allergies before you have the crown put in. If you're sensitive to gold or one of the other metals used in the alloy, then you'll have to choose another material for your crown.

Finally, gold dental crowns typically cost more than other options. Since a variety of precious metals are used to create the crown, the cost of the crown is dependent on the international precious metals market. If precious metals are currently expensive for dental labs to purchase, then any gold crowns they create will be expensive as well.

Overall, the fact that gold dental crowns have superior durability and help protect your natural teeth typically outweighs their disadvantages. They're often the best option to restore a chipped or broken molar, since the cosmetic appearance of the crown doesn't matter very much in this location. Speaking to your cosmetic dentist about metal sensitivity testing can relieve any concerns you may have about being allergic to the metals used in the crown. As long as the extra expense isn't prohibitive for you, gold is the perfect option to restore a damaged molar.

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