Family Dentistry

Dental Crowns and Bridges

What Is A Dental Crown?

A dental crown is a tooth-shaped “cap” that is placed on the prepared tooth. The crown restores the tooth’s shape and size and protects it from further damage.

A tooth that has been fixed with a crown looks and works very much like a natural tooth.

When Would A Dental Crown Be Needed?

A dental crown may be needed to:

  • restore the broken teeth or a severely worn down tooth.
  • cover and support a tooth with a large filling.
  • cover misshaped or discoloured teeth.
  • cover over the dental implant.
  • cover a root canal treated tooth.

Types Of Crown Materials

Permanent crowns can be made from metal, porcelain-fused-to-metal, all-ceramic, and Zirconia.

Metal crowns are made of gold.These crowns require only a small amount of tooth to be removed. The complete metallic colour or partial display of metal is the main drawback of metal crowns. Metal crowns are a good choice for back teeth, where they are not visible especially on molars.

All porcelain dental crowns provide the best natural colour match than any other crown type. They are also a good choice for people with metal allergies. All-porcelain crowns are a good choice for front teeth. The disadvantage is more tooth structure needs to be removed. They are more brittle than metal crowns and can chip more easily. Due to this reason, they are not usually good choice for back teeth.

Porcelain-fused-to-metal dental crowns can be matched to the color of the teeth beside them. They look natural and are stronger than porcelain crowns.However, sometimes the metal under the crown’s porcelain cover may shows through as a dark line. These crowns can be a good choice for both front or back teeth.

Zirconia

Zirconia has some distinct advantages as a material for crowns:

  • It can be matched to the colour of the existing teeth.
  • It is extremely strong, requiring less tooth preparation than other materials.
  • It can be layered with porcelain, further improving its aesthetic appearance.

This material is biocompatible, meaning it does not cause adverse reactions when implanted in the human body.
A zirconia crown does, however, have some disadvantages. Even though it is closer to a natural tooth color than gold, it is very opaque, making it difficult to match the shade of highly visible teeth in the front of the mouth.

Fixed Bridge

Fixed bridge, are a set of artificial teeth which fills the gap of one or more missing teeth and takes support from neighbouring natural teeth or held in place by dental implants. A bridge is fixed and cannot be removed.

How a fixed bridge can be done:

  • If you have healthy teeth on each side of missing tooth (teeth), the dentist will file down the adjacent teeth to prepare for bridge. If you don’t have healthy teeth or enough teeth to support a bridge, then dental implants may be surgically placed. The implant acts as an anchor to hold a fixed bridge in place.
  • Next, the dentist will make model of teeth by taking impression sand send to the lab for custom-made fixed bridge.
  • At the first visit, the dentist will place a temporary bridge to protect exposed teeth and gums.
  • During your second visit, the dentist removes the temporary bridge and places the custom-made bridge in your mouth. The crowns are either cemented to your healthy teeth or attached to your dental implants on each side of the missing tooth (or teeth).

Book An Appointment

If you have any questions about crown and bridge placement, please contact us at Cusp Dental; we are here to help. To make an appointment, call us directly at 778-574-3300 or book online.