A dental crown is a tooth-shaped “cap” that is placed over a tooth or a dental implant.
The dental crown, when bonded into place, fully encases the visible portion of a tooth that lies at and above the gum line.
A dental crown is fabricated when an appreciable amount of structure has been lost or the tooth has had a root canal. When a tooth has had a root canal, the blood vessel has been removed from the tooth drying the inside of the tooth. After a root canal a crown is needed to maintain structural integrity. Crowns do not replace missing teeth, they replace missing structure that has been destroyed by decay or breakage.
We design our crowns digitally and fabricate them in office, delivering your permanent crown to you the same day. The process of digitally designing a crown eliminates the traditional impression process and allows our office to oversee the entire process of crown fabrication from start to finish. This in-house process also allows our office to manage the unique esthetic details, such as coloration and translucency, of each person’s crown.
In our office we use zirconia or lithium disilicate ceramic to fabricate our crowns. The choice of between these ceramic choices is determined by the size and location of the crown and the requirements an individual tooth has for strength and appearance.