Crowns
Crowns – A dental crown or “cap” is a restoration that fits on over your tooth and restores it to the appropriate size and function. Crowns are placed for a number of reasons. They can be placed on teeth with a significant amount tooth structure loss due to decay, large fillings, or fracture. They are often placed on teeth with cracks to encircle and support the tooth preventing cracks from propagating further. Most crowns are designed and built in a laboratory from an impression of your mouth. Meanwhile a temporary crown is placed until your permanent crown comes back from the lab. This requires you to visit the dentist for two appointments in order for you to receive your crown. Our office now has the technology to complete your crown in one visit by creating an all ceramic crown from our Cerec Machine.
There are many different types of materials which can be used to construct a Crown.
- Gold – The advantages of gold crowns are they are extremely durable, have a great fit, require minimal tooth preparation, and have withstood the test of time. The Disadvantages of Gold are esthetics (is not tooth colored), and requires two visits to complete.
- Porcelain Fused to Metal (PFM) – PFM crowns have a gold under structure to give them strength and Porcelain placed over the metal to give it a highly esthetic tooth colored look. The disadvantages to PFM’s are porcelain can fracture off of the metal, and requires two visits to complete.
- All Ceramic – All ceramic crowns are the newest types of crowns and there are a variety of different types of ceramics that can be used.
- Emax (Lithium disilicate) crowns are strong and very esthetic. We are able to design and create emax crowns in our office in 1 visit.
- Zirconia – Are one of the strongest and most durable crowns available. They are most often placed on back teeth as an alternative to gold. The disadvantages are they are not as esthetic as emax because they lack the translucency. We are able to design and create Zirconia crowns in our office in 1 visit.
Procedure details for 1 visit crowns:
1. The crown is prepped by the doctor in the same manner as it would be for any other crown.
2. A 3D scan of you tooth is taken by simply passing the wand over your teeth. No need for any goopy impression material!
3. Your crown is designed by the doctor to specifically fit and function in your mouth.
4. The Milling machine will create your new crown from a ceramic block. Your Crown is then glazed and placed into a porcelain firing oven. This gives it a translucent glossy finish.
5. The Permanent Crown is now ready to be delivered to your mouth. This whole process takes about an hour
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