A dental crown, as the name itself suggests, is a cap for the tooth. This cap is placed over the tooth to restore its shape, size, strength or appearance; which may have been compromised due to some earlier injury or due to cavities. It is often used to restore a tooth that is too damaged to support a filling, inlay or onlay.
In fact, our Edmonton office has seen that a lot of people come down each year just for the dental crowning procedure. It helps change your smile, improves the colour of your teeth, and helps to give an ideal shape to your bite.
The process works by placing a crown (more commonly referred to as cap) to replace the outer surface of the tooth with ceramic material or even with gold.
We suggest that you speak to our dentists at Floss and Gloss and let them explain further details.
The process of getting a dental crown is really simple and painless. We first anesthetize your tooth to help us remove any decay from it. We also remove older fillings if necessary, but not always.
Next, the tooth is prepared by placing a new and strong bonded core. This core is shaped before taking the mould of the tooth. After this, the patient is fitted with a temporary crown for a few days while the mould is sent to the dental lab.
In the dental lab, a custom dental crown is made based on the mould. After approximately 1-2 weeks, the dental crowns are ready to be cemented to your prepared tooth.
On average it takes about 45 minutes divided between 2 sittings. The involves getting you sufficiently numbed. Few minutes for Prepping and taking a mold of the tooth. You go home with a temporary crown. Final appointment to cement the permanent crown will take about 15 minutes.
I sometimes take bit more time to ensure the bite is just right. Nowadays with procedures like Cerec, the whole procedure can be done in a single sitting.
Dental crowns can last decades. Crowns don’t decay, but the underlying teeth can. Hence good oral care is essential in ensuring the longevity of the restoration.
Another important factor is the bite force especially if the patient is a grinder(this has to be controlled).
If the underlying teeth is in reasonable condition and able to be shaped without too much tooth loss, then the life expectancy of the crown can be very good.
Its also interesting to see that a lot of insurance companies do pay for replacement crowns after as long as 8 years. Since these companies definitely use vast accumulation of patient data to make reasonable denials of payments, we can maybe ascertain some notion on how long they usually last. Very long we would say, even lifetime for some.
We administer Novocaine injection, after which the patient does not feel any pain while the tooth is reshaped. A little bit of pressure may be felt but no pain.
There are gold crowns, all ceramic, porcelain fused to metal and zirconium crowns. In our opinion all ceramic and ‘porcelain fused to metal’ offer good balance between cost and quality. Zirconium is the hardest and also the most expensive.
Yes, the crown can be made larger than the tooth it replaces. However, it has to be done with careful consideration because if it’s too big, it can affect your bite and cause problems to other teeth and gums too.
In short, it can be done and we do recommend it under certain situations.
Not really. If the crowns are properly chosen and fit well to ensure good bite, then your gum recession shouldn’t be any greater than if you did not have crowns.
Yes, dental crowns can look as good and even better than natural tooth. One can eat normally.