All my crowns are metal covered in porcelain. But not gold.
They are a black metal. You can only see the metal a tiny little bit on the inside of my gums. I only have crowns on molars.

My sister paid extra for her crowns. Thay were called "Hollywood Crowns becaue they are all porcelain and absolutely no metal showing.
I'm not sure it was worth it.

WHy your dentist wants gold is interesting to me. Gold was never even an option mentioned to me. I got my first crown in 1991 and have 6 more added in the last 15 years.
My teeth look great but for some reason my molars decay like crazy. It's like that in my whole family.

I thought you were talking about molding!! I've been doing too much remodeling.

My husband has gold crowns in the back. I've been married to him for 6 years and never knew--he just showed them to me the other day because we saw someone with a gold tooth in the front.

As long as it's in the back no one will ever see--I believe he told me that it was cheaper to do it that way.

De

My dentist says that gold is more compatible with the tooth than porcelain and lasts longer, that's why they prefer it. But you can get the gold covered with porcelain kind. The little black rim you see is not the gold part. Even if you get a gold crown, you'll still see the little black edge if your gums recede a bit.

I was a dental hygienist at one time so I kind of follow dentistry a bit. I still keep up with continuing education to keep my license - though I haven't worked in this field for nearly 20 years. Gold crowns have not been the standard of care where I live since I first got into the dental field. Porcelain fused to gold was the standard at that time. I now see a reasonably progressive dentist who does Cerec crowns which are milled from a block of porcelain with no metal at all.

So my opinion is that gold crowns are obsolete technology. However things vary by region so maybe it's different where you live. Does your dentist seem to be a younger progressive individual or might he/she be an older more traditional professional?

Thanks for the help everyone, actually my dentist is pretty young, and I live in progressive Berkeley! He recommended it for the back molar as it gets the most wear and tear. The old one was porcelain and broke after 8 years. He said a porcelain only crown shouldn't have been used there.

dktrahan, I thought that might happen :).

I was under the impression that gold was preferred because it is inert. IOW, it won't react with saliva, food, and all the other interesting things that wind up in the mouth. :-)

If you had problems with the previous crown holding up, it seems like reasonable advice to go with gold. I've never heard of any drawbacks with gold other than the appearance and if it's way in the back you're right - it probably won't show - unless you have your mouth wide open alot......

Okay, which one of you wise guys put the evil eye on me?

Guess who broke a tooth tonight? Believe it or not I was eating scrambled eggs!

Is this some kind of conspiracy?. I too broke a tooth. Chewing gum!
so now the crown I was going to get might be out and I may lose the tooth.

Gold or whatever, just give me a tooth ti hang it on.

I have a gold crown on my back molar. My dentist said because the back molars get the most abuse, gold is a better choice as it is softer and less likely to crack than a harder porcelain crown...

I've had it about 4 years now and no problems at all. and it can only be seen when my 5 yo makes me play dentist...LOL!

And I like the idea of gold in my mouth much better than all the mercury laced composite fillings I have...

LOL - I have a temporary crown on my molar right now (for the next two weeks) since I somehow managed to get a cavity UNDER my crown that I've had for years. They took it off, fixed the cavity, and now I'm waiting to get the new one put on.

My two front teeth are porcelain veneers (long story - I knocked out my permanent teeth when I was 8, and they moved my side teeth over and put veneers on them to make new front teeth) and they are definitely something different than what I have (had/again will have) on that molar.

Timely conversation!

Too funny...

I'm just right now back from the dentist sporting a temporary bridge due to a front tooth root somehow fracturing. Sparing you gory details, that tooth couldn't be saved, implant not possible, so it's two crowns either side and a fake front and center. I didn't even know what a bridge was before this all happened. Expensive event too, hey?

So what is it with this forum and our teeth?? We need a warning or disclaimer...

Everytime I see this post I think it's referring to dental crown molding, lol!

Just to dispel the forum and teeth myth, I'm 39 (and holding) and have never had anything other than cleanings done to my teeth. No cavities, nothing, and my dentist tells me I don't develop tartar as fast as the rest of the population and I only need one cleaning/checkup a year. Go figure? It works out well as we don't have dental insurance as we are self employed.

V