What is a Crown?
A crown is an artificial covering for a tooth. When a dentist makes a crown for a tooth the majority of the natural crown of the tooth is replaced. The term “cap” may be used instead of crown.
Benefits
- Appearance improvement: Badly discoloured teeth and misshapen teeth can be rejuvenated with a crown.
- Normal restorations(fillings) is not enough: Sometimes the mechanics of getting a restoration(filling) to stay in a tooth is virtually impossible and a crown or full coverage material is the only option for maintaining the tooth.
- Relieve the sensitivity of a cracked tooth: Teeth may have small cracks that cause sensitivity to cold, hot and biting. Holding the tooth together with a crown may relieve these problems.
- Strengthen a weak tooth: A tooth may have cracks that are obvious to the dentist without you being aware of any problems. A crown will help to prevent further damage.
What’s Involved
First Visit:
- Tooth preparation
The tooth is shaped to create space and the right fit for the crown. This tends to be the longer of the two visits and can take up to 90 minutes (depending on the tooth and complexity).
Impressions are taken of the whole mouth to send to the laboratory that will be fabricating the crown. A different type of impression is also taken so that the dentist can create a temporary crown that will sit over the prepared tooth until the porcelain crown is ready for cementing.
Second Visit
- Cementing the Crown
Once the finished crown has arrived from the laboratory, you will be scheduled to have it cemented permanently over the prepared abutment/tooth.
The temporary crown is removed and the permanent porcelain crown is checked for fit before being cemented with a permanent cement. The crown is checked on the edges and in-between the teeth to ensure a perfect fit and contour, then light-cured to set the cement into place.
Possible Complications
During any medical or dental or health treatments it is possible that unplanned complications can occur.
- Breakage of the tooth
- Pain or discomfort after preparation
- Dying nerve
- Loose crown: If your crown or temporary crown feels loose please let us know. When a crown is loose extensive decay of the remaining tooth can occur quite quickly. If the crown is loose we may be able to clean it and re-cement it into place.
- Allergic responses: Being allergic to gold or porcelain is very rare. Usually, the metal used inside a metal/porcelain crown is a mixture of metals including gold. Sometimes non-precious metals are used in crowns. If you are allergic to any jewellery then please tell us BEFORE we do a crown so we can determine the material of least risk. Allergic response to crowns may take some time to be seen or may develop after a crown has been put in place. It may be seen with increased inflammation or the discolouration of the gingival (gum) tissue around the crown.
