Cosmetic Dentistry
Dental Crowns

If you want a smile that's your crowning glory, you may need a crown to cover a tooth and restore it to its normal shape and size. A crown can make your tooth stronger and improve its overall appearance.

A crown can cover and support a tooth with a large filling when there isn't enough tooth left. It can be used to attach a bridge, protect a weak tooth from breaking or restore one that's already broken. A crown is an excellent way to cover teeth that are discolored or badly shaped. It's also used to cover a dental implant.  A crown is essential when a tooth has undergone root canal to protect the tooth from any future cracking or breaking.

If your doctor at Dental Professionals recommends a crown, it's normally to correct one of these conditions. Your dentist's primary concern, like yours, is helping you keep your teeth healthy and your smile bright.

Crowns restore appearance and protect the tooth

A crown is a type of dental restoration which completely caps or encircles a tooth or dental implant and is typically bonded to the tooth using dental cement. Crowns can be made from many materials, which are usually fabricated using indirect methods. Crowns are often used to improve the strength or appearance of your teeth.

The most common method of crowning a tooth involves using a dental impression of a prepared tooth by your Dental Professional staff, then those impressions are sent to a dental lab to fabricate the crown. The crown can then be inserted at a subsequent dental appointment. Using this indirect method of tooth restoration allows use of strong restorative materials requiring time consuming fabrication methods requiring intense heat, such as casting metal or firing porcelain which would not be possible to complete inside the mouth.

Porcelain-fused-to-metal dental crowns (PFMs) have a metal shell on which is fused a veneer of porcelain in a high heat oven. The metal provides strong compression and tensile strength, and the porcelain gives the crown a white tooth-like appearance, suitable for front teeth restorations. These crowns are often made with a partial veneer that covers only the aspects of the crown that are visible. The remaining surfaces of the crown are bare metal. A variety of metal alloys containing precious metals and base metals can be used. The porcelain can be color matched to the adjacent teeth.

When preping a patient for a crown, Dental Professionals prefer to use the Isolite system, instead of uncomfortable rubber dams, for patient comfort whenever possible.

Make an appointment online or call us at (503) 684-8445.