I broke off a piece of my tooth during the past week and found myself in the Dentists’ office being prepared for a temporary crown and subsequently a permanent one.

During the process I asked a few questions of the Dentist as to how the tooth is prepared and whether or not ridges are put into what remains of the original tooth in order for the crown to adhere to the bond.

He told me they reduce the tooth to 30 percent of the size of the original, sometimes pointing-off the tooth.  He said while grinding down the original tooth and whatever filling might have been in the tooth the diamond head of the drill bit does put micro ridges in the tooth which helps in the bonding process of the crown.

“That’s an excellent question,” he told me. “As long as I’ve been in practice no one has ever asked me about the ridges.”

If any of you have ever had a crown put on your teeth, you know it’s a process that takes about an hour-an-a-half with your mouth in various positions and a lot of gunk put in and taken out of your mouth to take impressions. While the Dentist prepares the tooth, the Dental Hygienist does a lot of prep work as well as making the temporary crown.

While this is going on the Dentist returns to the office obviously impressed with my question about the ridges in the tooth and holds a model in front of me showing how they grind down the original tooth to prepare it for a crown.

He shows me two crowns and then slips them over the original teeth.  He tells me, “We didn’t have a chance to put these crowns in one of our patients — he died between the time we put the temporary in and before we were able to put in the final ones.  You see it takes two weeks and a day before the Dentist gets the final crown back from the manufacturer.

After hearing the story I thought to myself, ‘I didn’t need to hear that . . .’

I kept thinking about that poor guy who died and was buried with a temporary crown.  He wasn’t even perfect for his funeral.

They completed what they had to do and inserted my temporary crown.  The Dental Hygienist then took me to accounting to pay my bill.  A typical crown costs about a $1,000.  The very pleasant clerk said, Don, “How would you like to pay for this . . . all at once or fifty percent now and fifty percent when you get your final crown?”

I couldn’t help but think of that poor guy that died and never got his crowns which are now serving as an educational prop for patients.  “I’ll pay for fifty percent now,” I said.