A dental crown is a prosthetic tooth made out of porcelain. They are used for a number of reasons, but the main reason is to fix broken or decayed teeth. The crown slides over the top of your natural tooth, similar to a stocking cap on your head, and serves as protection for a tooth that is weak.
Who is a good candidate for dental crowns?
Good candidates for dental crowns are people who have broken or decaying teeth, assuming that all of the surrounding structures of the teeth are healthy. The crown helps restore the tooth back to its original shape and size, and it allows you to eat with less risk of your tooth breaking. Once you have a crown placed, it will blend in with your other teeth and you won’t even notice it’s there.
When are dental crowns necessary?
Dental crowns are necessary when your tooth is broken or decayed beyond what’s possible to fix with a filling. It’s also necessary following a root canal on your back teeth, as they are put under a lot of stress. After a root canal, that tooth becomes very brittle and weak, and the dental crown helps hold everything together.
When is getting a crown better than getting a filling?
A filling is an entry-level method when fixing teeth, like getting a small cavity filled. However, when that cavity becomes so large that there isn’t enough natural tooth remaining, we shift to putting a crown on. At that point, the tooth also isn’t strong enough to withstand biting and chewing, and the crown helps restore that function.
What color are dental crowns?
The color all depends on the patient’s teeth. Before we start the procedure, we look at the patient’s teeth and decide what shade of crown will match best. There are a multitude of options to choose from when we are making the crown, and we choose the color that will blend in with the rest of the patient’s teeth.
We make the crowns in our office in about an hour and a half during one visit, which is a pretty new technology. Most of the time, we are putting on a porcelain crown, which isn’t as prone to staining as a natural tooth. If a patient has various shades to their teeth, we are still able to customize the crown to blend in with the other teeth using custom coloration.
What does recovery look like after a dental crown has been placed?
There is little to no recovery period after a dental crown has been placed. After the numbness from the procedure has worn off, you should be perfectly fine and can eat and drink as normal.
Why would someone consider getting a dental crown?
There are multiple reasons why someone would want or need a dental crown. The main reason is to fix a broken or decayed tooth, whether that’s from a large cavity or from the tooth fracturing, breaking, or cracking.
The other reason is more on the cosmetic and aesthetic side of things. We can use crowns to improve the look of someone’s smile. If someone has a stained or cracked front tooth, we can use a crown to improve the look of the teeth. If someone has gaps between their teeth, we can place multiple crowns in a row and really make world of difference with someone’s smile. We have actually done quite a few cosmetic cases like these and have had really good success with them!
