Porcelain Crowns

• Made from ceramic or porcelain, crowns are commonly designed to match the natural color of your teeth. Oftentimes, crowns can also be made with gold, acrylic, and metal alloys.

• In comparison to traditional porcelain crowns, metal alloys are stronger, and more durable, making them suitable for back teeth – an option that you can choose if esthetic is not a concern.

• Under what circumstances might dental or porcelain crowns become necessary?

WHY SHOULD YOU GET A CROWN?

After our thorough examination, the reason that necessitates the need for a crown are based on one or more of the following:

• Attaching Bridges
• Restoring Fractured Teeth
• Protecting Weak Teeth From Fractures
• Replacing Large Fillings
• Covering Dental Implants
• Covering Teeth With Prior Root Canal Procedures
• Covering Poorly Shaped / Discolored Teeth
• If you have questions about your specific reason for a crown, please contact us at the office and we will be more than happy to go your case in more detail.

Types of Dental Crowns

Implant crowns are the finishing touches after dental implants have been installed. These devices are placed on the abutment fitted on the external-facing end of the implant, and they look just like real teeth.

Dental crowns can be made from a wide variety of materials like ceramics, porcelain, gold, silver and metal alloys. Ceramics and porcelain provide the most natural look, while gold offers the most durable type of crown a person can get.

The materials crowns are made from are not the only things that differentiate them. The way a crown is attached to the implant also makes a noticeable difference. The two main types of dental crowns for implants are cement-retained and screw-retained crowns

How is a Dental Crown Fitted and Placed?

Once it has been decided that a dental crown is your best treatment option, Silk Dental Wellness will prepare the tooth for crowning. During the preparation phase, a local anesthetic will probably be used to numb the area around the tooth. The tooth will first be thoroughly cleaned and any decay will be removed. The tooth will then be reshaped using a special dental drill designed for this purpose. Typically, the shape is tapered to allow the crown to sit comfortably over the tooth. After the tooth has been prepared, an impression of the tooth will be made using a special kind of dental putty. The impression will be used by the lab technician as a guide from which to create the crown for the prepared tooth. This is to ensure that the crown fits properly. After the impression is made, the dentist will put a temporary crown on your tooth to protect it until the permanent crown is completed and placed.

When the completed crown arrives at the dentist office, you will return for a second visit to have the crown placed. During this visit, the temporary crown will be removed, and the outer surface of the tooth will be roughened with a special etching acid. The dental cement will bond better to the roughened surface. Before the crown is permanently bonded to the tooth, however, the dentist will sit the crown over the tooth to make sure it fits properly and to see if the color, shape, and fit work well with your smile. Once you and your dentist are both happy with the way the crown looks and fits, the dentist will firmly bond the restoration to your tooth with the dental cement.

If you choose a CEREC ONE-VISIT CROWN, an infrared camera takes images of the tooth after shaping and a CAD CAM computer program immediately downloads the images creating three-dimensional virtual models that can be viewed and manipulated on the computer monitor. Our dentist then uses the program to design the crown or onlay that will replace the missing tooth structure. This usually takes about three to five minutes. Next a porcelain block is selected, is inserted into a milling machine and the software program sends a signal to the milling machine to create the design in porcelain. This takes about 13 to 18 minutes. Once completed, the crown is polished, tried in the mouth, adjusted and bonded into place. The entire process takes about 2 hours and there is a period of about ½ hour for design and milling that can be used to accomplish other needed dental work.