On a bittersweet night for the Bulldogs at a hot and heaving Belmore Oval, their dynamic left-edge pairing of Burton and Kikau suffered match-ending knee injuries.
Canterbury's chief playmaker Burton was first left reeling in pain when his knee twisted trying to make a tackle on Jojo Fifita.
Bulldogs medical staff suspect the five-eighth has suffered a torn medial ligament, which would likely leave him sidelined for at least four weeks.
Kikau's medial ligament is believed to be in a slightly worse state, after he was hurt attempting a tackle on Moeaki Fotuaika just before fulltime.
Undefeated through two rounds, Canterbury have a struggling Parramatta next week before crunch games against Cronulla and Newcastle ahead of their round-six bye.
Crichton spent 10 minutes at five-eighth before halftime on Sunday night, before being shifted back to the centres to fix Canterbury's defensive issues on the right.
But he is now expected to move to five-eighth for the next month as cover for Burton.
"That's what we trained for all pre-season, if one of our halves went down Critta was moving into that spot," Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo said.
"I thought he did a good job when he was there, but I needed him (to go back to the right) and take that challenge on."
The injuries soured the Bulldogs' high-scoring win, with both sides mixing moments of attacking brilliance with early-season lapses in defence.
Playing their first game of the season, after a round-one bye, the Titans trailed 22-0 before fighting back with an Alofiana Khan-Pereira double before halftime.
And after they slipped 34-12 behind in the second half, Keano Kini gave Gold Coast some brief hope with a bust out of his own end that ended with Fifita scoring.
But the Titans ran out of time on a night when their big-money forward pack was soundly beaten and let in a number of tries.
One Bulldogs four-pointer came when Josh Curran pushed through three defenders to reach the line after a one-out pass from a 10-metre penalty tap.
Another came when Jaeman Salmon dummied his way past Fotuaika, while Kurt Mann had a four-pointer when he hit a gaping hole in the middle.
When Curran and Max King walked off the field to a standing ovation after just 25 minutes, the Bulldogs' front-row pairing had run 170 metres between them.
In comparison, Gold Coast's starting props Fotuaika and Reagan Campbell-Gillard totalled a combined 40 in that time.
"I think we missed the start a little bit last year," Titans captain and lock Tino Fa'asuamaleaui said.
"We've just got to learn from that and get better. Mentally, starting we need to focus on front-loading.
"But we still have a lot of games and training ahead where we can get better at that."
Titans coach Des Hasler waited until the 50th minute when his side were down by 22 to bring his most damaging forward David Fifita off the bench after off-season ankle surgery.
In contrast, Canterbury's hulking second-rower Kikau was dominant in the opening half, having a hand in two first-half tries.
He batted on a Burton ball to Marcelo Montoya for Canterbury's first after a Reed Mahoney intercept.
And his skills were on show again 13 minutes later when he charged onto a ball and got away a late offload to help Burton put Mahoney in under the posts.
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