When Are Dental Crowns Needed?
Tooth crowns are dental caps placed on top of damaged teeth. The crowns help protect and restore the shape of the teeth when fillings are inadequate to solve the problem. Dental crowns in Oshawa, ON are made from metals, resin, ceramics, and porcelain, and the tooth caps don’t require special attention over time besides good oral hygiene.
Dental Crowns Explained
Your teeth can sustain damage for reasons like tooth decay, injuries, or merely overuse. In addition, they can also lose their shape and size. Dental crowns resemble tooth-shaped caps ideal for placement over your tooth. The crown fits like a snug hat to restore the tooth’s appearance, strength, shape, and size. The dental crown is bonded over your tooth to encase the entire visible portion.
When Are Dental Crowns Essential?
You might need a dental crown for several reasons, including protecting a weakened decayed tooth from breaking or keeping the weak tooth intact if parts of it are cracked. Dental crowns in Oshawa, ON, also help restore a broken tooth on one severely worn down.
If you want to cover and support a tooth with extensive fillings and without much tooth structure, remaining dental crowns are appropriate for the restoration. You can also use dental crowns to cover a misshapen or severely discoloured tooth. Dental crowns also help replace missing teeth by supporting dental bridges and implants and covering a fragile tooth that’s received root canal treatments.
As mentioned earlier, different materials help make dental crowns, including metals, porcelain fused to metal, all resin, all-ceramic or all-porcelain and pressed ceramic. The type of dental crown you select for your damaged tooth depends on the location of the tooth, your budget, the dentist’s experience, and your geographical location. For example, you can choose a metal crown for your molars to ensure they are well hidden in the back of your mouth. On the other hand, if you have a damaged anterior tooth, you can consider having porcelain teeth blending naturally with your remaining teeth.
The Procedure for Getting Dental Crowns
The dental crown procedure typically requires two visits to your provider.
During your first visit, the tooth receiving the crown undergoes examination and preparation. Your dentist in Oshawa, ON takes x-rays of the tooth and the bone surrounding it and might recommend root canal therapy before the dental crown procedure if your tooth has any decay, risk of infection, or injury to the dental pulp.
If you don’t have any complications, that tooth receiving the crown undergoes filing from the tops and sides to make space for the dental crown. How much tooth structure removal is needed depends on the material of the crown you have selected. For example, if you intend to have porcelain teeth, must you endure tooth extensive structure removal than thinner metal crowns.
After reshaping your tooth, the dentist impressions it and the teeth above and below to ensure the crown will not affect your bite. The impressions are for the dental laboratory to fabricate your customized dental restoration. The laboratory requires approximately three weeks to create your dental crown and return it to your provider. Meanwhile, you receive temporary crowns over the placement tooth for protection.
Three weeks down the line, you revisit the dentist in Oshawa, ON to have the permanent crown bonded to your tooth. The provider starts the procedure by removing the temporary placements and checks the permanent restoration for colour and fit. The new crown is cemented in place if everything is acceptable.
The lifespan of Dental Crowns
Generally, dental crowns last for around five and 15 years. However, the life of dental crowns depends on the wear and tear the crown is exposed to and how well you follow dental hygiene practices and manage personal mouth-related habits. Mouth-related habits include grinding and clenching your teeth, chewing on ice, biting fingernails, and using your teeth for purposes other than chewing. If you can manage your mouth-related habits and get a nightguard to control bruxism, you ensure the extension of the lifespan of the dental crown.
Do Dental Crowns Demand Special Attention?
Crowned teeth don’t require special attention besides excellent dental hygiene. It helps if you remember the underlying tooth is natural and needs protection against tooth decay and gum disease. Therefore you must incorporate practices like brushing your teeth twice a day, flushing them at least once, especially around the crown area and avoiding biting on hard surfaces with porcelain crowns to prevent damage to the restoration.
Conlin Dentistry provides dental crowns of all types to patients with advice on caring for them to extend their lifespan. If you need dental crowns to restore damaged teeth, kindly schedule an appointment with this practice today to have your dental crowns.