The five jobs a temporary is actually doing
Patients tend to see a placeholder. A dentist sees a device with a job list.
It protects a tooth that has been opened up. Once the enamel jacket is reduced for a crown (Krone), the dentine underneath is exposed, with its microscopic tubules running towards the nerve. Left uncovered, that tooth becomes painfully sensitive within hours and vulnerable to bacteria.
It holds the gum in shape. Gum tissue moves quickly. Take away the contour of a tooth and within days the tissue creeps, thickens or collapses inwards. The definitive crown is designed to emerge from a particular gum profile — the temporary is what keeps that profile waiting.
It keeps the space open. Teeth are not fixed in concrete. Neighbours tilt towards a gap and opposing teeth drift down into it. After only a few weeks of drift, work made to the original measurements may no longer seat properly.
It lets you carry on. You need to speak on calls, eat lunch, and appear in a meeting without covering your mouth. A front-tooth temporary is often the difference between taking time off and simply carrying on.
It is a rehearsal. This is the underrated one. A temporary tells you how a new length or shape feels, how it affects your speech, and whether the bite is comfortable — while everything is still easy to change. If something bothers you, say so during the temporary phase, not after the ceramic is cemented.
The types you may be given
Chairside temporary crown or bridge. Made in the practice on the day of preparation, directly from a mould of your tooth before it was reduced. Quick, adequate for a few weeks.
Laboratory-made long-term temporary. Individually made, stronger and better looking, and used when the temporary phase will run longer — for extensive work, for front teeth where appearance matters, or where the bite is being changed and needs testing before it is made permanent. In our practice these come from our own in-house master dental laboratory (Meisterlabor), a floor away rather than a courier journey away — as do the crowns, bridges and dentures they stand in for: Dentures and fixed restorations – service page (EN).
Interim partial denture (Interimsprothese). A removable plastic denture that replaces one or more missing teeth while the gum heals or while the definitive work is made.
Immediate denture (Immediatprothese). Made in advance and inserted straight after extractions, so you do not leave the practice with a visible gap. It needs relining as the gum shrinks and reshapes during healing — that is expected, not a fault.
Temporary on an implant. After an implant (Implantat) is placed, the healing phase (Einheilphase) takes on average three to six months before the definitive crown is made. A temporary carries you through it. Where several implants are placed in one jaw and primary stability is sufficient, a fixed temporary bridge can sometimes be fitted the same day.
How long will you wear it?
| Situation | Usual temporary phase |
|---|---|
| Single crown or small bridge, plan already approved | A few weeks between preparation and fitting |
| Larger prosthetic work, several units | Several weeks, sometimes with a laboratory-made temporary |
| After an extraction, waiting for the gum to heal | Weeks to a few months, with relining as the tissue settles |
| Implant treatment, during healing | On average three to six months |
| Waiting for the fund to approve the HKP | Allow for it in the plan — the time varies from fund to fund |
Two general rules sit behind the table. First, temporaries are made to serve for a limited period — the material wears, the cement is deliberately weak, and the fit becomes less precise over time, so wearing one for a year “because it’s fine” invites decay under it. Second, if the phase does have to be long, say so early: a long-term temporary is a different product from a chairside one and should be planned as such. How long is safe in your particular case is a question for your dentist. How long can you wear a temporary restoration?
Why German paperwork can lengthen the wait
This is the part that catches international patients out, because nothing about it is intuitive if you have come from a system where the dentist simply treats and bills.
For crowns, bridges and dentures, your dentist draws up a treatment and cost plan (Heil- und Kostenplan, HKP). It must go to your statutory health insurance fund before treatment starts, and it must come back approved — otherwise the entitlement to the fixed subsidy (Festzuschuss) is lost. How long the fund takes to process it varies from fund to fund.
The subsidy is a fixed amount towards standard care (Regelversorgung), and how much it is depends on your bonus booklet (Bonusheft):
- no gap-free record of check-ups — 60 % of the cost of standard care
- booklet complete for five years — 70 %
- booklet complete for ten years — 75 %
- under the hardship provision (Härtefallregelung) — up to 100 % of the standard option
To put numbers on it: for a single tooth in 2026, the subsidy comes to 552.96 € at 60 %, 645.12 € at 70 %, 691.20 € at 75 % and 921.60 € in a hardship case. Anything above the standard option — a different material, a more elaborate design — is your own share (Eigenanteil).
Where does the temporary fit into all this? It appears as an item on the plan or the private estimate alongside everything else, and the more elaborate the temporary, the more it costs. That is why the detail is worth reading rather than skimming. A separate article covers the cost side properly: What does a temporary restoration cost?
One more thing worth mentioning, carefully. A draft law discussed at federal level in 2026 proposes reducing these subsidy percentages to 50, 60 and 65 %, keeping the 100 % hardship provision. It has not passed the Bundestag or Bundesrat and is not law. Treat it as a proposal under discussion — not as a reason to rush a decision, and not as a fact.
If you are privately insured (private Krankenversicherung, PKV) or hold supplementary dental insurance (Zahnzusatzversicherung), the mechanics differ again: cover of a share set by the tariff is common depending on the tariff, and it is worth submitting the estimate to your insurer before starting.
What it feels like to wear one
Honesty here saves a lot of unnecessary worry.
The temporary will not look as good as the finished work. Plastic lacks the depth and translucency of ceramic, and a chairside temporary is a single flat shade. It will usually feel slightly bulkier, and your tongue will notice it. Cold and sweet things may register more than usual for the first days. The margin at the gum is less perfectly fitted than the definitive restoration will be, so that gum may be a little tender or bleed slightly when you clean around it — cleaning it gently is right, avoiding it is not.
A removable interim denture is a bigger adjustment. Speech takes days to normalise, certain sounds feel odd, and saliva flow often increases at first. That settles.
And a temporary is cemented to come off. Weak cement is a design decision, not sloppiness: the whole thing has to be removable at the next appointment without damaging the prepared tooth underneath.
Living with a temporary: the short rules
- Chew carefully on that side, and avoid what is genuinely hard, sticky or chewy — nuts, crusty bread, toffee, chewing gum
- Clean it, including between the teeth, but pull floss out sideways rather than snapping it upwards
- Do not test it with your tongue or fingers all day
- If you grind (Bruxismus), mention it — a temporary is more vulnerable than ceramic
- Keep to the appointment for the definitive work, even if the temporary feels fine
More detail on what you can eat and how to clean it is covered in Eating with a temporary: what is allowed? and Caring for a temporary restoration.
If your temporary comes off or breaks
It happens, and it is not an emergency in the surgical sense — but it should not wait a fortnight either.
1. Keep the piece. It can often simply be re-cemented, which takes minutes. 2. Do not glue it back yourself. Household adhesives are not made for the mouth, they contaminate the surfaces and they can turn a five-minute reattachment into a remake. 3. Keep the area clean and avoid chewing there. The exposed tooth may be sensitive to cold and air. 4. Ring the practice the same day if you can. We are open Monday to Friday from 07:30 to 19:30 and on Saturday from 08:00 to 18:00, which usually makes a short-notice slot possible. Outside those hours, the out-of-hours service (Notdienst) covers genuine pain.
The urgency is highest for a front tooth, for a temporary that is holding a space, and where the prepared tooth is very sensitive. A full guide is here: My temporary has fallen out — what should I do?
What's normal — and when to contact us
Special situations
If you are travelling. Tell us before a trip. A temporary that has to survive three weeks abroad may be better made in the laboratory than chairside, and it is worth timing the definitive appointment around your flights rather than hoping. For patients who travel home for a longer stay, planning the phase around it is normal.
If you have a client-facing job. Say so at the planning appointment. Many patients working in Düsseldorf, Cologne or Bonn need to be presentable in meetings throughout, and an individually made temporary for the visible teeth is the answer to that — it is a legitimate request, not vanity.
If your temporary sits on an implant. The healing phase is longer and the temporary must not load the implant in the wrong way. Follow the instructions on what to chew and where more strictly than you otherwise would.
If you are anxious about the dentist. The preparation appointment is the longer one; the fitting appointment afterwards is usually short. Sedation and laughing gas (Lachgas) are available in our practice for patients who need them.
If you have just arrived in Germany. Two things regularly go wrong for new arrivals: the HKP is not submitted before treatment starts, which forfeits the subsidy, and the Bonusheft is never opened at all. Both are avoidable in a single conversation. We work in English as well as German, Russian, Turkish, Ukrainian, Arabic, Kurdish and French — and for expat patients across NRW, 20 to 30 minutes to a practice where the paperwork is explained in your own language is time well spent: English-Speaking Dentist in NRW.
Where a tooth has been prepared for a crown or a bridge, essentially yes — the tooth is exposed and the gum will move without it. After an extraction it is a question of appearance, function and space, and it is discussed case by case.
It is not the place to save. An unprotected prepared tooth becomes sensitive quickly, and drifting neighbours can make the definitive work fit poorly — which costs considerably more to put right than the temporary did.
Temporaries appear as items in the treatment and cost plan or the private estimate rather than as a free extra, and what you pay depends on the type and on your cover. Ask for the item to be shown to you on the plan before you sign it.
Because it is made of plastic, quickly, and often in one flat shade. A laboratory-made temporary looks considerably better and is the right choice when the phase is long or the teeth are visible — worth asking for in advance.
Usually a matter of weeks, depending on the work and on whether the fund still has the plan. Because our laboratory is in the house, we can often shorten that step and adjust details directly with the dental technician (Zahntechniker).
Better, in most cases: the fit at the margin is more precise, the surface is smoother, and the shape has been refined using what you noticed while wearing the temporary. Report anything that bothered you — that feedback is what the rehearsal is for.
A Provisorium is a working device, not a placeholder. It protects an exposed tooth, holds the gum and the space, keeps you eating and speaking normally, and gives you a rehearsal of the final result while changes are still easy.
Treat it accordingly: clean it, chew thoughtfully, keep the fitting appointment, and speak up if something feels wrong. In the German system, the length of the phase often depends less on your dentist than on the plan sitting with your insurance fund — so submit it early, keep the Bonusheft stamped, and ask for the temporary to be planned properly if the wait will be a long one.
Zahnarztpraxis Tsypin · Wuppertal. This article was medically reviewed and is provided for information; it does not replace an examination. Updated August 2026.
