A dental crown is defined as a cemented restoration that covers the outside of the crown of the tooth. The crown portion of the tooth is the part of the tooth that is seen above the gum line.
A crown is usually placed after a root canal, or when the filling placed in the tooth exceeds the amount of tooth structure in order to protect the tooth. This could be caused by the breaking of a cusp. If a person is prone to grinding their teeth, they may need crown restorations due to the shortening of the teeth over time.
Another reason many people decide to go with dental crowns is an undesirable appearance of teeth. Teeth that are discolored, misaligned, or have undesirable spaces can be made very natural in appearance and beautiful using dental crowns.
The process:
The process of having a crown restoration done varies depending on the reason for doing so. Crowns that are placed after root canals on posterior teeth are done in two appointmentss. At the first appointment the tooth is prepped, an impression of the tooth is taken, and a customized temporary crown is placed. We will then send off the impression to our lab to have a permanent crown made. At the second appointment we will remove the temporary crown and permanently cement the crown that was made by the lab.
If several dental crowns are done on the front teeth for appearance reasons there will usually be three appointments involved. We will take impressions to have a wax model made of how the crowns will look. We will go over this with you to make sure the appearance looks the way you would like for it to, if so the steps will continue as listed above.
The Results: