After
After a crown
Living with a temporary crown, how to floss without pulling it off, what a new crown should feel like, and when something is actually wrong.
Get help now if
Ring a dentist, the same day
- The temporary crown has come off, or broken. Keep it. Do not leave the prepared tooth uncovered — it is sensitive, it can move, and if the neighbouring teeth drift even slightly the finished crown may not fit.
- Pain that is severe, throbbing, or keeps you awake, or pain set off by heat that then lingers.
- Swelling of the gum or face, or a temperature.
- A crown that has come off — the permanent one. Keep it, do not try to glue it back, and ring. Household glue can make a crown that was perfectly reusable unusable.
If the swelling is spreading — towards or under your eye, down your neck, or into the floor of your mouth under your tongue — or if your eye is swelling shut or your eyesight changes, or you cannot open your mouth properly, or you are having difficulty breathing, speaking or swallowing, that is hospital territory rather than a dental appointment. Ring 999 if breathing, speaking or swallowing is affected; otherwise go to an emergency department. Do not drive yourself — have somebody take you, or ring an ambulance.
While you have the temporary
A temporary crown is held on with a deliberately weak cement, because it has to come off cleanly next time. Treat it as borrowed.
- Chew on the other side. Not forever — just for a week or two.
- Avoid anything sticky. Toffee, chewing gum and soft nougat take temporaries off, and they do it without warning.
- Avoid anything hard. Nuts, crusts, ice, crisps, and the corner of a poppadom.
- Floss, but pull it out sideways. This is the one piece of practical advice on this page worth remembering: slide the floss down, clean, then let go of one end and pull it out to the side rather than lifting it back up through the gap. Lifting it up is exactly the movement that pops a temporary off.
- Interdental brushes are easier, if you use them, for the same reason — they go in and out sideways.
- Keep brushing it. The gum edge around a temporary collects plaque quickly, and a swollen gum on fitting day makes the final result worse.
- Expect it to feel different. Slightly bulky, a bit rough to the tongue, sometimes sensitive to cold. All normal for a few weeks.
- Expect it to look like a temporary, if it is a front tooth. The colour is approximate and the material is not the finished one.
After the permanent crown is fitted
The bite
Check it, and check it properly, because this is the most common fixable problem and the window for mentioning it is short.
A crown should feel like a tooth. If it feels tall, if your teeth meet on it first, if you catch yourself avoiding it, or if your jaw aches on that side the next morning, it is a fraction high. Adjusting it takes two minutes.
If you were numb when it was fitted, your bite was not reliable at the time. Give it a day, then check again, and ring if it still feels high. A high crown keeps the tooth sore, can crack the crown, and in a root-treated tooth can split the root.
Sensitivity
- Cold sensitivity for a few weeks is common if the tooth still has its nerve. Brief, sharp, stops when the cold does.
- It should be fading. Direction matters more than speed.
- Sensitive-teeth toothpaste helps, used as normal toothpaste and not rinsed off afterwards.
- A gum edge that is tender for a few days is ordinary, especially if cord was used at the preparation visit.
What is not ordinary: pain that lingers after the cold has gone, pain from heat, or pain that wakes you. Ring.
Cleaning it
A crown cannot decay. The tooth underneath it can, right at the margin where the crown meets the tooth — and that is one of the main ways a crowned tooth is eventually lost.
So: brush twice a day with fluoride toothpaste, spit rather than rinse, and clean between the teeth every day with floss or an interdental brush. Once the permanent crown is cemented you can floss normally again, up and out.
Living with it
- Avoid biting hard things with it. Ceramic is strong in the mouth and poor against ice, pens and fingernails.
- If you grind your teeth, say so. A night guard protects a crown and is much cheaper than replacing one.
- Have it checked. The margin is not something you can inspect yourself.
The next few days
| Day 1 | Numbness, then a tender tooth and sometimes a tender gum. Check the bite once feeling has fully returned. |
| Days 2–7 | Gum settling. Cold sensitivity, easing. |
| Weeks 2–6 | Should be becoming unremarkable. It ought to stop being a thing you think about. |
Painkillers
Paracetamol first. If you take a blood thinner of any kind — warfarin, apixaban, dabigatran, rivaroxaban, edoxaban, clopidogrel, ticagrelor, prasugrel, dipyridamole, a daily injection such as enoxaparin, or aspirin a doctor put you on — take paracetamol and not ibuprofen, aspirin, diclofenac or naproxen. These raise the bleeding risk alongside those medicines. If your medicine is not on that list and you are not sure which kind it is, ask a pharmacist before taking ibuprofen. And if paracetamol is not enough, or you cannot take it, ring your dentist rather than reaching for ibuprofen — there are other options, and they are a phone call away. If you are not on one, ibuprofen is an option if you normally take it safely. Follow the packet and do not exceed the dose printed on it. Do not hold a painkiller against the gum — aspirin in particular burns the tissue it rests on.
Your dentist’s instructions come first
The instructions you were given by the dentist who treated you take precedence over anything on this page. They know which material the crown is, what it is cemented with, and how much tooth is underneath it; this page does not. Where the two differ, follow theirs.
Sources
- Root canal treatment, including when a crown is needed — NHS, last reviewed 3 October 2025
- Gum disease, self-care advice on brushing and interdental cleaning — NHS, last reviewed 20 April 2026
Who to ring
Routes and numbers checked .
England
Ring your own dentist.
Otherwise NHS 111, by phone or at 111.nhs.uk, at any hour. They will arrange urgent treatment if you need it.
A GP cannot help with a dental problem.
Scotland
In working hours, ring your own practice — or your health board’s dental helpline if you are not registered with one.
Out of hours — from 6pm on weekdays, and from 6pm Friday to 8am Monday — 111 reaches NHS 24.
NHS 24 is a separate service from NHS 111 in England, on the same number.
Wales
Ring your own dentist.
Otherwise ring your health board's dental helpline — that is what NHS Wales asks you to do first. In Cardiff and the Vale it is 0300 10 20 247. In the Aneurin Bevan area (Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly, Monmouthshire, Newport, Torfaen) it is 01633 744387, weekdays 9am to 12.15pm and 1.15pm to 4pm, with advice only outside those hours. In Betsi Cadwaladr, Cwm Taf Morgannwg, Hywel Dda, Swansea Bay and Powys, ring 111, at any hour.
Which number you ring depends on where you are, not where you are registered.
Northern Ireland
Ring your own practice first, whatever the day — they will tell you what out-of-hours arrangements they have. If you are not registered, ring local practices, and ask about the Dental Access Scheme if you cannot get seen.
At weekends and on bank holidays, the Emergency Dental Clinics triage by telephone on 028 2566 3510, lines open 8am to noon. You will be given an appointment if you need one.
Do not attend a clinic without an appointment. On a weekday evening or overnight there is no dental service at all — listen to your practice's answerphone, and use 999 or an emergency department only for the signs above.