Crowns Explained

What Are They?

Over time, your teeth can get damaged for a variety of reasons such as decay, trauma and general wear and tear. This can result in your teeth loosing their shape, size and function.

Dental crowns are caps that are designed to replicate the appearance of a natural tooth, they are placed over the top of damaged teeth and used to protect, cover and restore the shape of your teeth when fillings are not viable . Dental crowns can be made out of metals, porcelain, resin and ceramics. They typically don’t require special care over time other than regular good oral hygiene.

Why Would I Need A Crown?

You may need a dental crown for several reasons, including:

• Protecting a weak tooth (possibly from decay) from breaking or to keep the weak tooth together if parts of it are cracked.
• Restoring a broken tooth or a severely worn down tooth.
• Covering and supporting a tooth with a large filling and not much tooth remaining.
• Holding a dental bridge in place.
• Covering misshapen or severely discoloured teeth.
• Covering a dental implant.
• Covering a tooth that’s been treated with a root canal filling.

What will My Dentist do?

• The dentist will pre-asses your existing tooth to see if your tooth is viable for a crown, occasionally an X-ray may be required to check that there is no sign of infection in the root of the tooth.
• The dentist will shave around the circumference of the tooth, to create a stump which the crown will be cemented to.
• The dentist uses a soft, mouldable material to take impressions of your mouth and they are sent off to a Dental Technician who constructs the crown. This takes 1 week; In the meantime, you will be fitted with a temporary crown.
• At your final visit, the dentist will check that the crown fits correctly, make any minor adjustments and then fix it permanently in place. Your dentist will advise you on how to keep the prosthesis clean.

Zirconia and Emax crowns

Technology has come a long way in dentistry. There are two categories of crowns; ceramic metal mix and all ceramic crowns. The ceramic-metal crowns or commonly known as Porcelain fused to metal (PFM) are traditional tooth coloured crowns. Thsese crowns are the more affordable crowns but they can sometimes be unsightly and aesthetically inferior especially when placing them on the front teeth.

Both zirconium and emax crowns are all ceramic crowns which are the more preferable crowns due to their superior aesthetic appearance . They are translucent in colour which ensures the closest match to your natural teeth. Their colour also eliminates the “ugly” metal band around the gum margin which is a common characteristic of the PFM crowns.
Zirconium and emax crowns are lighter and thinner than the traditional PFM crown which means less of your tooth has to be removed to make the crown fit.