Q. I have had a succession of bad luck with having crowns on my two upper front teeth. I am at present, seeing a fourth dentist to try and rectify the situation. I had temporary crowns fitted that were fabricated by the fourth dentist based on the ones that were fitted by the third dentist. My problem is that the crowns do not seem to go right up to the gum (at the back, not front). They are also both quite sharp at the tops on the back of the crowns. I am catching my tongue on them a lot when I speak or swallow. My tongue seems to naturally rest on the tops of the crowns at the back also. I am experiencing a kind of burning/stinging sensation above the backs of the crowns and my tongue is covered in tiny bright red dots at the tip of the tongue. The fourth dentist is of the opinion that I should now look at having orthodontic work carried out. This would be to rectify the gaps that I have to the teeth either side of my two front teeth and also to push the two front teeth back. He has told me that I will need to continue wearing tempory crowns whilst having the orthodontic treatment done. I dont understand why I cant have the all porcelain permanent crowns fitted before having orthodontic work done. Is this standard practice? Could I be experiencing this discomfort and pain because the temporary crowns are not fitting right up to the gum margins at the back? I am seeing the dentist tomorrow as I am now getting exasperated at being in such constant discomfort with temporaries. I was suffering from this complaint with the temporary crowns that I had fitted beforehand and this has now been going on for nearly two months in all. The reason being that the first dentist left me in considerable discomfort and I lost confidence in him. The second dentist managed to crack the back of the right temporary crown and I was experiencing a lot of pain in the right tooth. I was referred to Bristol Dental Hospital and at the time had severe swollen glands and pain in the right tooth. He took an xray and could find no signs of infection from this but seemed to be of the opinion that I needed a root canal treatment. I went to the fourth dentist for a second opinion on this and he removed the temporary crowns and did a sensitivity test. He thinks I may need a root canal at some point as the tooth seems to be hypersensitive. If a tooth behaves in this way, is this irreversable? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.