Porcelain Crowns

dental crowns

Porcelain Crowns

Dental crowns, also known as caps, fit over worn or damaged teeth. They may also be able to provide an aesthetic function, rebuilding a tarnished enamel to its previous hue.

Your dental practitioner may fit you with a short-term crown to protect a damaged tooth while a permanent crown is being made. Depending on the wear they get, permanent crowns last about 5 to 15 years.

Who Needs Dental Crowns?

Crowns provide numerous functions in restorative and aesthetic dental care. They’re an important component of strengthening weakened or broken teeth. Untreated dental problems can result in jaw discomfort, problems and bite anomalies that could do additional harm to usually healthy teeth. Here are some of the reasons why your dental practitioner might suggest crowns.

  • Protecting soft or damaged teeth
  • Supporting thoroughly filled teeth
  • Anchoring bridgework
  • Rebuilding the look of misshapen, chipped or tarnished teeth
  • Covering a tooth implant
  • Rebuilding tooth after a root canal
  • Creating a more healthy bite

Types of Crowns

Dental crowns fall into three groups: full metal, porcelain fused with metal, and porcelain. We usually recommend porcelain crowns, which are the most popular due to most closely resembling your original teeth.

All-Porcelain Crowns

Porcelain crowns have the most all-natural appearance and they are typically indistinguishable from natural teeth. Because of developments in ceramics, these are typically every bit as powerful as metal or PFM crowns. Porcelain crowns usually wear at the same rate as natural teeth.

How Are Crowns Applied?

Your dental practitioner will provide you a local anesthetic to numb the location before preparing your teeth to receive crowns. Biting on carbon paper shows how your teeth come together, making sure the crown will not hinder your bite. Following the bite impression, you’ll be fitted with a dental dam to protect the rest of the mouth from enamel dirt and keep the repair area dry. With a high-speed drill, the dental practitioner will after that reshape any teeth requiring crowns. Reshaping may include minor filing, or it could warrant elimination of even more tooth surface to produce a peg-like anchor point for the crown.

After shaping the tooth to prepare it for the crown, your dental practitioner will simply take another bite impression. This action is necessary in order to make the crown fit the remaining tooth perfectly.

Caring for Dental Crowns

Your crowns look, act and feel like your normal teeth, and they require exactly the same attention and care. Proceed with the cleaning and flossing routine your dentist recommends.

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