Convenient to Restore a Weak Tooth Using Dental Crowns
Dental crowns are custom-created permanent restorations appearing like a tooth cap that dentists place over a weak tooth. When cemented in place, the crown entirely covers the salient part of the tooth resting over the gum line. Dental crowns serve many purposes besides encasing a weak tooth. You can even have them for cosmetic reasons if one of your teeth is discoloured due to infections and doesn’t respond to teeth whitening treatments.
Why May You Need Dental Crowns?
The primary purpose of a tooth crown is to restore the strength, functionality, shape, and size of a tooth to enhance its appearance. In addition, you may find it necessary to have a crown to protect a weak tooth from decay or cracks to hold it together and prevent further breakage.
You can have a dental cap to restore a tooth incurring damage by breakage. Crowns are helpful to restore teeth damaged from bruxism or cover and support a tooth with extensive fillings and without sufficient tooth structure remaining. Crowns are also beneficial to cover dental implants and function as bridges. If you have undergone root canal treatment, a crown is recommended by the dentist as a restoration because root canal treatment renders the tooth fragile.
Besides enhancing the appearance of the tooth, a dental crown also protects it from further wear and damage.
What Kind of Dental Crowns Can You Have?
Various materials like metals, all-ceramic, all resin, and porcelain crowns are available to restore the damaged or weakened tooth. The location of the tooth, your budget, the biting forces the tooth must endure, geographical location, and your dentist’s expertise must all be considered when selecting dental crowns for yourself.
For example, if you need a dental cap on a molar dentist in Mississauga, ON, recommends you have a metal crown. Metal crowns are incredibly durable and can withstand the biting forces exerted by the molars. On the other hand, if you have a weakened tooth in the aesthetic zone, the dentist recommends porcelain crowns because they blend with your natural teeth and do not appear out of place in your mouth.
What Must You Entail When Getting a Dental Crown?
Your specific situation will determine what you must go through when getting dental crowns. Before commencing any preparatory work for your customized restoration dental crowns in Mississauga, ON, will examine your tooth and oral health by taking x-rays. If the examination is satisfactory, the dentist proceeds with the preparatory work by numbing the natural tooth and the gums surrounding it. The tooth receiving the crown requires filing along the chewing surfaces and sides to make space for the crown to fit on top. How much filing is needed depends on the crown you have selected. All-metal crowns are thin and don’t require extensive tooth structure removal. However, porcelain crowns are thicker and require more filing.
After preparing your tooth, the dentist from Pearl dental care takes impressions of the tooth for the dental laboratory to custom-create your dental crown. You receive a provisional crown over the fixed tooth until the laboratory returns your perpetual repair, which arrives approximately in two to three weeks.
You must revisit the dental facility after the dental lab returns your restoration. During the second visit, the dentist extracts the provisional crown and examines the fit and colour of the perpetual restoration. If everything is satisfactory, you receive local anesthesia again before your customized restoration is permanently bonded over the prepared tooth. After completing the bonding, the dentist provides after-care instructions you must follow diligently.
How Durable Are Dental Crowns?
The durability of dental crowns depends on how well you care for the crowned tooth and your dental hygiene. In general dental crowns don’t require special attention. However, you must exercise caution to ensure you don’t allow plaque buildup around the crown or your other teeth.
You must remember your natural tooth remains beneath the dental crown and is prone to tooth decay. Therefore you must follow excellent dental hygiene practices brushing your teeth twice a day, flossing at least once, and visiting your dentist for exams and cleanings at six-monthly intervals. In addition, it helps if you avoid using your teeth to open packages or bite on complex foods with the dental crown in your mouth. If you care for your restorations appropriately, you can expect them to last for nearly a decade or more. However, they will need replacements eventually sometime later.