What are Tooth Crowns?

These are Dental Caps that are placed over the tooth to cover it and resemble the tooth. When the dental crowns are cemented into place, they will fully cover the portion of the teeth visible above the gum line. Dental Crowns help to restore the teeth’s shape and size, its strength and appearance.  

What are Ceramic Crowns?

Ceramic or All Ceramic crowns are a type of dental crowns, which has the natural colour of the teeth. As the name suggests, the Ceramic crowns are made up of dental ceramic, which is a white glass-like material that resembles tooth enamel.

These are usually used to bring about a more aesthetic outcome and also in patients who have metal allergies. They can be used for both front and back teeth.

Need For Dental Crowns

The dental crowns are needed for adults for the following:

• Protect a weak tooth from breaking.
• Holding the cracked tooth pieces together.
• Help restore a broken or a severely worn-down tooth.
• Helps to cover and support a tooth with a large filling. This is usually done when much of the natural tooth is left.
• Holding a Dental Bridge in place.
• To cover any odd-shaped or discoloured teeth.
• To cover Dental Implants.
• To perform a cosmetic modification

The main reasons for dental crowns in adults are:

• To reinforce the tooth;
• Post Root Canal Therapy to aid in biting or chewing food.
• For aesthetic rehabilitation.

Advantage of Ceramic Crowns

• Aesthetics: Ceramic Crowns have a superior aesthetics when compared to other types of dental crowns.The fabrication techniques used to manufacture these crowns make them lifelike. It mimics the lustrous effect of a natural tooth, which is generated when light penetrates into the enamel layer and reflects it back.
  
  
• Biocompatibility: The ceramics that are used to manufacture Ceramic crowns are no more abrasive than dental enamel itself.
  
  
• Precision in fit: With Ceramic Crowns made using CAD-CAM technology have a better fit and contours. The crown will be milled and then cemented into place using cement ideal for ceramic crowns.

Tooth Crowns Procedure

The procedure for fixing the dental crown will start off with the dentist examining the tooth and then preparing it for the dental crown (a procedure also known as Crown prep). Then the roots of the tooth where the crowns are going to be fixed and also the bone under it are checked using X-rays.

If the dentist finds a risk of infection to the root’s pulp, a root canal therapy will be recommended first before the crowning is done. The Dentist might place a temporary crown on the tooth to prevent infection until the permanent ceramic crown is ready.

When the permanent ceramic crowns are ready, the temporary crowns are removed and the new permanent crowns are milled or fixed and then cemented into place.

Authored by DR.NIRANJAN P