What To Do With A Swallowed Dental Crown

A dental crown can be swallowed if the adhesion gives way and the crown comes off of the tooth or tooth stub that it was on. If you have swallowed your crown, do not panic! Although the situation isn’t the best, and you will have to go and see a dentist, or possibly a gastroenterologist right away, this is not a very serious medical emergency. Here is what to do in case you have swallowed your dental crown.

Where is it?

Digestion takes a long time, so your crown, if you have just swallowed it, is probably lodged in your upper digestive tract. Usually, it will stay there, soaking in your stomach acid for about 12 hours, before moving on down the line towards its inevitable departure from your bowels. This entire process usually takes a couple of days, but depending on the state of your intestines and the amount of blockage you may have in your intestines, it can take even weeks sometimes. The most important thing to do is to get to an x-ray machine as quick as possible, and get an x-ray taken of your intestines, to know for sure where the crown is lodged. From there a medical doctor will be able to determine what needs to be done, if the crown is safe and it will pass through the intestines without problem, or if it needs to be surgically removed. It is extremely rare that a crown causes any sorts of problems at all, so usually this is what happens.

Possible complications

The materials that are used to make crowns are acid safe and will not corrode in your body, and will not release any byproducts to harm you, either. You cannot digest the crown, and unless it settles somewhere in your intestinal tract, or unless a cyst forms around it, you should pass it without any problems at all. This means all you have to do is wait patiently until you hear the magic “clink” in the toilet bowl one day, unless your dentist says otherwise.        

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