A smile is the best accessory. A smile flaunts your beautiful and glittering teeth, and vice versa. A beautiful set of teeth can enhance your smile. Never let your smile fade away due to a broken or decayed tooth. If you do face such a problem, dental crowns are the best way to bring back your attractive smile. Dental crowns are fixed on the treated tooth. They encase the whole tooth from the gum line to the tip, restoring the original shape, size and appearance.
Dental crowns offer cosmetic and oral health benefits besides restoring the natural look of the tooth. A dental crown or dental cap may be suggested by your dentist in the following cases:
To restore a broken, chipped or cracked tooth.
To protect the decayed tooth from breaking further.
It may provide strength, shape to your weakened/worn out tooth. The tooth may have worn out due to ageing or some injury or accident.
To cover up a discoloured tooth.
To improve the appearance and size of the tooth on which root canal has been performed.
Different Types of Dental Crowns
Porcelain dental crowns are the most popular among all the options such as metal crowns, stainless steel or ceramic. They can match the colour of the neighbouring teeth but are susceptible to chipping. Ceramic or porcelain crowns are most suitable for people with metal allergies.
Stainless steel crowns are generally used for children. They are fixed over the primary tooth. When the primary tooth gives way to the permanent tooth the steel crown comes off along with it.
Metal crowns are less prone to wear and tear as compared to other options and can withstand biting and chewing. But the flaw is that they do not give a natural look due to their colour and lustre. They are more suitable for the molars that are not visible in the front.
Temporary crowns can be made in the dentist’s clinic, but permanent crowns are made in clinical laboratories according to the mould size of the tooth.
Procedure
Two to three visits are required for fixing up of the dental crown to your permanent tooth.
In the first visit, the dentist will determine how the original tooth can receive the crown with the least invasive procedures. Taking X-ray of the receiving tooth and the surrounding bone to check for the health of tooth roots is important.
If your dentist identifies some decay of roots in the tooth, he will suggest for treatment like root canal before fixing the dental crown. Determining the health of the natural tooth is important as a dental crown is only a superficial coverage.
The dentist will inject local anaesthesia in the gum tissue. This is done so that the roots of the tooth and the gum tissues go numb and you do not feel any pain during the procedure. The receiving tooth will then be filed down to make some space for fixing the crown. But if the problem is of fixing the crown on the decaying tooth then the dentist may have to use filling on the decayed tooth to create a support for the crown.
The second step is to take the shape and size of the teeth on a mould. The crown to be prepared should match the size of the neighbouring teeth, should be functional and allow proper chewing and biting as a normal tooth. This mould will be sent to the clinical lab to prepare the actual crown of the material chosen (porcelain, ceramic metallic or stainless steel). If porcelain or ceramic is chosen, then the colour should match the shade of the neighbouring teeth.
The third step is to remove the temporary crown and place and fix the permanent one. The new crown will be inspected for proper functionality, appearance in terms of size and colour and health. So, forget your worries about dental problems. Dental crowns will not let your smile fade away. Stay healthy, stay happy and keep smiling!
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