Alafaya Center for Cosmetic and Family Dentistry
Crowns
What is a crown?
A crown is custom crafted in a dental laboratory. It is a tooth-shaped “cap” that is placed over a tooth to restore its shape, size, strength, or to improve its appearance.
When cemented into place, crowns fully encase the entire visible portion of a tooth that lies at and above the gum line.
Why do I need a crown?
A crown is the restoration of choice when a tooth is too damaged to receive a filling or porcelain onlay. A crown is the most durable, strongest way to restore a tooth with extensive damage.
Crowns can be recommended to fix a number of problems.
- To restore an already broken tooth
- To protect a weak tooth from breaking or to hold together a cracked tooth
- To restore the bite on a tooth that has been severely worn down
- To cover a tooth with a large filling to prevent fracture of the tooth
- To cover a tooth after root canal therapy
- To cover misshapen or severely discolored teeth
- To cover and restore a dental implant
What Types of Crowns Are Available?
Permanent crowns can be made from all gold, porcelain-fused-to-metal, or all ceramic. Many things are taken into consideration when recommending what type of crown to place on a patient.
The location in the mouth and grinding patterns are important considerations when choosing what restoration will best suit you. Dr. Michaelson will perform a thorough evaluation and recommend the most ideal option for you.
Full Gold
This type of crown has been used since the beginning of dentistry. Gold is an excellent restorative material based on its biocompatibility and malleable qualities. Compared with other crown types, less tooth structure needs to be removed, and tooth wear to opposing teeth is kept to a minimum. Gold crowns withstand biting and chewing forces well and probably last the longest in terms of wear down. Also, gold crowns rarely chip or break. The metallic color is the main drawback. Gold crowns are a good choice for out-of-sight molars.
Porcelain Fused To Metal
Porcelain fused to metal crowns have a metal substructure with porcelain adhered to it. They can be color matched to your adjacent teeth (unlike the metallic crowns).
Sometimes the underlying metal can show through as a darkness at the gum line and even more so if your gums recede.
For that reason we typically don’t use porcelain fused to metal crowns to restore a front tooth. Next to all-ceramic crowns, porcelain-fused-to-metal crowns look most like normal teeth.
These crowns are a good choice for back teeth. Porcelain fused to metal crowns can lead to more wear on the opposing teeth than a full gold crown. The porcelain portion on these crowns can also chip or break off.
All Ceramic or All Porcelain
All porcelain crowns provide the best natural color match as compared to any other crown type. Since there is no metal, light passes through the restoration just as it would a natural tooth. Translucency is an important characteristic in creating a natural restoration. Today the ceramic materials available are just as strong as the metal alternative. All-ceramic crowns are a good choice for any tooth and particularly ones that are in the smile zone.
