Aparna Subramanian DDS
Creating beautiful smiles
Dental Crowns
A dental crown is a tooth-shaped "cap" that is placed over a tooth – covering the tooth to restore its shape and size, strength, and/or to improve its appearance.
The crowns, when cemented into place, fully encase the entire visible portion of a tooth that lies at and above the gum line.
Why Is a Dental Crown Needed?
A dental crown may be needed in the following situations:
1.To protect a weak tooth (for instance, from decay) from breaking or to hold together parts of a cracked tooth
2.To restore an already broken tooth or a tooth that has been severely worn down
3.To cover and support a tooth with a large filling when there isn't a lot of tooth left
4.To hold a dental bridge in place
5.To cover misshaped or severely discolored teeth
6.To cover a dental implant
What Types of Crown Materials Are Available?
Permanent crowns can be made from all Ceramic, porcelain-fused-to-gold, all gold.
Before - Missing tooth After - Space restored with implant
and All Pocelain crown
•All-ceramic or all-porcelain dental crowns provide the best natural color match than any other crown type and may be more suitable for people with metal allergies. However, they are not as durable as porcelain-fused-to-metal crowns.
•Porcelain-fused-to-metal dental crowns can be color matched to your adjacent teeth. Next to all-ceramic crowns, porcelain-fused-to-metal crowns look most like normal teeth.
•Metals used in crowns include gold alloy, other alloys (for example, palladium). Compared with other crown types, less tooth structure needs to be removed with metal crowns, and tooth wear to opposing teeth is kept to a minimum. Metal crowns withstand biting and chewing forces well and probably last the longest in terms of wear down. Also, they rarely chip or break. The metallic color is the main drawback. Metal crowns are a good choice for out-of-sight molars especially in people who grind their teeth at night.
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•Temporary versus permanent
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•Temporary crowns are made of acrylic or stainless steel and can be used as a temporary restoration until a permanent crown is constructed by the dental laboratory.
How long does it take?
Fitting a crown requires at least two visits to our office. Initially, we will remove decay, shape the tooth, and fit it with a temporary crown that matches your other teeth.
On the subsequent visit we will remove the temporary crown, and then fit and adjust the final crown. Finally, we will cement the crown into place and you have a new beautiful looking tooth.
Key Benefits
•Replaces missing teeth
•Offers support to misshapen teeth or badly broken teeth
•Looks completely natural
•Fixes "smile" and functional chewing problems.
What are the capabilities of crowns?
Crown and bridgework is a very reliable solution for major dental problems caused through accidents, diseases or wear and tear. Major problems can usually be corrected using these techniques. Material used in these repairs is either high-grade porcelain, or porcelain bonded to gold. A higher strength of the porcelain and gold materials is recommended to treat the most serious of dental problems. Where accidental damage has occurred, resulting in lost teeth, or where teeth have broken away through excessive wear, or as the result of old fillings breaking, crowns and/or bridges can be used as a long-term solution.
Many people have unexplained pain from filled back teeth, which is usually due to hairline cracks in the chewing part of the tooth. Placing crowns on these teeth relieves the pain and allows a return of full dental function for these teeth. In front teeth, older fillings can both weaken the teeth and cause "appearance" problems due to staining or chipping. Porcelain crowns and bridges are suitable in cases where porcelain veneers are not. In teeth with root canal fillings, crowns can prevent breakage
450 Sutter St, Suite 1839 Telephone : 415 576 9005
San Francisco, Ca 94108 Fax : 415 981 9079