Dr. Ostad, D.D.S.
Restorative Dentistry
About Dental Crowns
A dental crown is a tooth-shaped cap that is placed over a tooth – covering the tooth to restore its shape and size, strength, and/or to improve its appearance. When cemented into place, dental crowns fully encase the visible portion of a tooth.
- Dental Crowns Become Needed To:
- Keep a weak tooth from breaking or to hold together parts of a cracked tooth.
- Restore an already broken tooth or a tooth that has been severely worn down.
- Cover and support a tooth with a large filling when there isn't a lot of tooth left.
- Hold a dental bridge in place
- Cover misshaped or severely discolored teeth
- Cover a dental implant
Temporary Crowns
... can be made in the dentist's office, used to provide function as a temporary restoration while permanent crowns are being made in a dental laboratory. Temporary crowns are made of acrylic or stainless steel.
Different Types of Permanent Crowns:
Permanent crowns can be made from all metal, porcelain-fused-to-metal, all resin, or all ceramic.
- Metals used in crowns include gold alloy, and other alloys. With metal crowns, less tooth structure needs to be removed and tooth wear to opposing teeth is minimized. Metal crowns rarely chip or break and withstand biting and chewing forces well and usually last the longest in terms of wearing down. Metal crowns are a good choice for out-of-sight molars.
- Porcelain (Fused-to-Metal) dental crowns can be color matched to your adjacent teeth which is a big advantage over metal crowns. However, more wearing to the opposing teeth occurs with this type of crown compared to metal or resin crowns. The crown's porcelain portion can also chip or break off. Next to all-ceramic crowns, porcelain-fused-to-metal crowns look most like normal teeth. However, sometimes the metal underlying the crown's porcelain can show through as a dark line, especially at the gum line and even more so if your gums recede. These crowns are a good choice for front or back teeth.
- All-resin dental crowns are less expensive than other crown types, but they do wear down over time and are more prone to fractures than porcelain-fused-to-metal crowns.
- All-Ceramic or All-Porcelain dental crowns provide the best natural color match than any other crown type and may be more suitable for people with metal allergies. However, they are not as strong as porcelain-fused-to-metal crowns and they wear down opposing teeth a little more than metal or resin crowns. All-ceramic crowns are good choices for front teeth.
- Read more about Porcelain Crowns