Diving during dental treatment

[gerbil]

I'm having a crown put on one of my remaining teeth. I have checked with a diving friend who is also a dentist and he has confirmed that i should be fine diving the weekend after (trip booked to St Abbs - currently more concerned about the passing turds from Edinburgh).

However, my tame denist is off work at the moment and i'm having stage one of the work tommorow and i'm down to go diving this sat (as far as i can tell thats where they take away the top of the teeth and put a temp crown on). So my question is whats the general view on diving with a temporary crown?

[Colin Marriott]

Originally Posted by gerbil

So my question is whats the general view on diving with a temporary crown?

Won't the pointy bit stick through your hood?


ColinM

[endoman]

You should be absolutely fine, biggest risk is if it's a crap temporary then it might come off and you swallow it. Pretty much zero risk re pressure problems.

[gerbil]

Endoman, thanks

Colin........erm thanks.......hmmmmmmm

[Mal Bridgeman]

I dived during my last root canal treatment and am diving still through my current root canal treatment. I am not aware that it's a problem.

Mal

[Richard Mason]

Like Mal, I'm 2/3 of the way (ie 8 months) or Stage 2 through root canal treatment. This crown has to come off in August and be replaced by a lump of gold. I've dived regularly since I had it done, no dramas.

However, stage 1 involved knocking the top off the old tooth, giving it a right old clean out, dropping in a pellet of antibiotic inpregnated cottom wool (read "air space") and then whacking on a very temporary, four weeks only-cap.

I dived with that (once) and it was agonising painful.....dropping to 30m didn't help but eventually it equalised, with a sharp hiss and it was just a dull throb.

However, when I surfaced, the pressure built up and the deco stop was very very unpleasant. I was like a bear with a sore head as I sat in the boat, until relieved after 10 mins or so, by another sharp hiss. I was very tender there for a few days. Dental barotrauma is not to be trifled with.

I stayed out of the water until the longer term (12 month) cap went on; it's been fine since then, dived loadsa times, no worries.

Basically, I think it depends on the nature of your temporary crown and what's underneath it.

[endoman]

Nice for a lay person to explain perfectly why using cotton wool to soak medication and leave inside a tooth is not the best idea. If the air can hiss in and out, then so can the bugs that caused the problem in the first place. Best option = fill the canal space with a medicament, then place a temporary that really seals it in well. Just miss out the cotton wool. There is then no air to worry about and the bugs don't continue to party in the tooth.

Bill ( all I do is root canals )