Porcelain Crowns
Compared to fillings which just cover a small portion of a tooth, a crown (or cap) encases the entire visible portion of a tooth. In effect, the crown acts as the tooth's new outer surface. A dental crown is used when a tooth is broken or decayed to such an extent that fillings aren't able to repair the problem. The crown is able to provide a protective shell around the damaged or decayed tooth to strengthen it, as well as to improve the appearance of the tooth. They can also help restore a tooth to it's original shape, are used commonly for teeth that have been broken.
How it's done
The tooth first needs to be shaped or prepared so that a crown can fit over the remaining tooth. Prior to doing this, any old filling is generally removed. Sometimes a special kind of filling (a buildup) needs to be placed so that there is enough tooth structure to hold the crown.
The tooth first needs to be shaped or prepared so that a crown can fit over the remaining tooth. Prior to doing this, any old filling is generally removed. Sometimes a special kind of filling (a buildup) needs to be placed so that there is enough tooth structure to hold the crown.
Traditionally, the next step would be to take an impression of the tooth and then make a temporary crown that you would wear for 2-3 weeks until your crown returned from the dental lab. Now, in most cases, thanks to our new state of the art CEREC CAD-CAM system, we can complete the entire procedure in one visit prevent you from needing to come back for a 2nd visit.
Instead of taking a dental impression, we use a special Blue-Ray digital scanner that creates an exact digital representation of your tooth. The crown is then designed on the computer and sent to a special milling machine which makes your crown out of a solid block of porcelain. Depending on the type of porcelain used, this takes around 30-45 minutes.
The new crown is then bonded in place and your new crown is complete!
This system can be used for most all posterior crowns, but there will still be occasions when sending the crown to a dental lab and placing a temporary crown will be necessary.
