5 Foods to Avoid with Dental Crowns

At Beaches Dentistry in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, we create dental crowns that are beautiful and durable. But today’s crowns are not made of steel, and there are limits to the degree of force they can accommodate without cracking, breaking, or becoming detached. 

To preserve your new dental crown, it’s worth the effort to think about your food choices and to avoid foods that could place undue pressure on your new crown. 

Begin by thinking about the construction of your new crown

A dental crown uses an artificial “cap” to cover all of the visible surfaces of a natural tooth. Crowns are made from durable materials, like porcelain, resin, or pressed ceramic. These options create crowns that appear as natural tooth tissue, including variations in shade and minor flaws in the teeth’s natural surface. 

Crowns are attached to your natural tooth after it’s gone through a preparatory process that involves reshaping the tooth and removing any decay. A special type of dental cement is used to bond your tooth tissue with the crown material. 

While today’s dental crowns are very durable, they aren’t bulletproof. It’s essential to take precautions to prevent damaging your crown. But while we’re on the topic, you should also avoid chewing or biting down on foods that could harm your natural teeth.

Here are some foods you should avoid if you have a dental crown.

Especially hard foods

Chewing or biting down on hard food items can place significant pressure on your crowns. A crown could crack or chip if subjected to heavy pressure. Some examples of hard foods include hard candies, nuts, seeds, and hard pretzels. 

While everyone knows that candy isn’t a great nutritional choice, you also know that seeds and nuts are an essential part of a healthy diet. You can include these foods in your meal planning as long as you alter them, making it easier to chew. Simply chopping nuts and seeds is usually sufficient, but you can also soften them by cooking them in other dishes. 

Especially sticky foods

We all know the feeling of chewing sticky candy, like toffee, taffy, sweet, and sour candies. Your teeth sink in, and when you try to open your mouth for another bite, there’s a distinct pulling sensation as your teeth struggle to break free of the sticky confection. 

That sensation is also placing force on your crowns. It can cause the bond between your natural tooth tissue and the protective crown to weaken, and over time, that can lead to the crown detaching completely. 

If you can enjoy your favorite sticky foods without biting into them, you’ll probably avoid harm. But if you can’t resist biting and chewing these treats, it’s best to take them off the menu altogether. 

Ice deserves its own mention

For tens of thousands of people, chewing ice is satisfying. But it’s also incredibly damaging to your natural tooth tissue as well as your dental restorations, including crowns. 

It can be difficult to break the habit of chewing on ice. Some people try to minimize the potential damage by switching to more porous, “chewable” ice, but that doesn’t really make much difference. 

If you’re a habitual ice chewer, make every effort to stop this harmful habit. Your teeth will thank you for it.

Foods with surprise elements

Some foods bring an element of surprise that isn’t always welcome. A great example is popcorn. Whether you make it yourself or buy a bag at a movie theater, you can enjoy 20 bites with no problem before biting down on an unpopped kernel. 

Candies also have unexpected hard pieces. Even healthy granola isn’t always safe, as an errant almond can ruin the experience. 

Make thoughtful choices when selecting your meals and snacks. Detect hard pieces that could be hiding in your favorites, and take steps to avoid damaging your teeth and crowns. 

Overly sweet foods

The bacteria within your mouth love sugar. It’s the perfect fuel to help them reproduce quickly, and it tends to conveniently stick on the surface of your teeth until you brush and floss. 

If you consume a lot of sugary foods, your dental health could be at risk. While sweet foods don’t directly harm dental crowns, they increase the risk of gum disease, which can cause your gums to pull away from the surface of your crowns. 

If the root of your tooth becomes exposed, it can develop decay, eventually creating a space between your tooth and the crown. This issue can allow decay to advance rapidly, as reaching those spaces with a toothbrush or floss is highly unlikely. 

Worried about changes to your dental crowns?

These tips can help you avoid damaging your dental crown. However, if you’ve noticed changes in the way your crown looks or feels, come in and let us take a look. Some issues can be repaired, while other damage requires the placement of a new crown. 

We’re here to deliver the best possible care, no matter how simple or complex your dental health needs might be. If you need to schedule a visit to Beaches Dentistry, we offer online and phone-based booking to make it easier to connect with our practice.