What are Dental Crowns?

    PHOENIX, AZ, May 31, 2012 /24-7PressRelease/ -- A dental crown is a tooth-shaped and tooth-colored covering that is placed on a damaged tooth to restore its size, shape, and strength, and to protect it from additional damage. Since dental crowns cover the entire visible portion of your tooth, it can also be used to achieve highly aesthetic results during a smile makeover.

Your dentist may recommend a dental crown to:

- Protect a weak tooth from fracture
- Hold together parts of a cracked tooth
- Cover and support a tooth with a large dental filling
- Restore a decayed or damaged tooth
- Cover a dental implant
- Hold a dental bridge in place
- Cover a misshapen, mispositioned, or discolored tooth
- Protect a tooth after a root canal

Types of Dental Crowns

There are several different dental crown options available. Your cosmetic dentist will discuss these with you before recommending the ideal option to suit your needs.

Metal crowns are typically made of gold. Less tooth structure must be removed for metal crowns than other options, they are highly durable, and they withstand biting and chewing forces very well. However, metal crowns are unsightly and do not provide you with a highly aesthetic result. As a result, many patients prefer an option that will more effectively blend in with their smile.

Porcelain-fused-to-metal crowns have a porcelain surface bonded to a metal lining. These crowns are highly durable and deliver good aesthetics. They can be customized to match the color of your adjacent teeth. They provide a highly functional result which will last a long time. However, the metal lining may eventually show through if your gums recede over time. As a result, they may not produce as good an aesthetic result as an all-porcelain crown especially in the front of the mouth.

Porcelain crowns provide the most natural looking result of any dental crown option. Your cosmetic dentist can match their color to the shade of your neighboring teeth, and the translucent properties of dental porcelain mimics the characteristics of natural tooth enamel. For this reason, they have become increasingly popular in recent years. However, they are not as strong as porcelain-fused-to-metal crowns or metal crowns and as a result, they may not be the best option for back teeth which must sustain stronger biting forces.

We now have a new option in dentistry for areas needing high strength but when esthetics is still desired. The new all zirconia crowns, called BruxZir crowns are made of the metal oxides used in creating artificial diamonds. They can be kept as thin as metal and are just as strong but are tooth colored and have very close to the esthetic quality of porcelain. These work wonderfully in the posterior mouth in place of metal crowns.

Dental Crown Benefits

Dental crowns can substantially improve the health and function of damaged or decayed teeth. Benefits of dental crowns include:

- Eliminates any pain experienced in the damaged part of your tooth
- More durable than other restorations such as dental fillings
- Can save a tooth from needing to be extracted
- Easy to care for with normal oral hygiene practices
- Maintains root structure of your tooth, reducing potential issues from arising with adjacent teeth, gum tissue, and jawbone
- Restores proper chewing function and reduces the possibility of potential TMJ problems

As mentioned earlier, there are also several important aesthetic benefits associated with all-porcelain, porcelain-fused-to-metal crowns and all zirconia crowns. They can be matched to the color of your natural teeth, providing a restoration that blends in beautifully with your smile.

For more information about dental crowns, please visit the website of Dr. Scott LeSueur and Dr. Charles Dodaro at www.drsofsmiles.com, serving patients in Phoenix, Mesa, Tempe, and Scottsdale, Arizona.

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