All You Need To Know About Dental Crowns

A dental crown also known as a cap or covering that is placed over the tooth to restore or improve its appearance and function. It serves an essential purpose in preserving teeth in cases of dental caries and tooth fractures. Crowns offer the most secure and permanent restorative covering over a conventional filling.

Why do we need a crown? #

• To protect the fractured teeth
• To protect the weak or compromised teeth as in cases of severe dental caries
• To cover or protect the teeth with large restorations where the tooth structure is minimal.
• To cover the discolored teeth in cases of severe fluorosis and non-vital teeth due to accidents.
• To replace the missing teeth as in the case of bridges.
• To cover the dental implants.
• To ensure cosmetic concerns of the patient.

Types of Crowns #

Stainless steel crowns #

The name itself self-describes the material of the crown i.e stainless steel. These are prefabricated crowns that are used on permanent teeth as temporary crowns. Stainless steel crowns are used in decayed primary teeth to restore the teeth function and to maintain the space for the underlying permanent teeth.

Porcelain-fused-to-metal #

These crowns are tooth-colored unlike the stainless steel and other metal crowns. It contains two layers inner stainless steel coping and an outer ceramic layer. Porcelain crowns are mostly preferred for molar teeth and for long-span bridges.

Metal crowns #

Few metal crowns are made up of alloys of gold and platinum, or base-metal alloys eg- cobalt-chromium and nickel-chromium alloys. These crowns are durable and rarely chip or break or in other words, these crowns can withstand high occlusal forces. These are good choices for out-of-sight molar teeth with less accessibility.

All-ceramic or all-porcelain #

These are highly aesthetic crowns mostly used in the anterior teeth region. These are expensive as compared to other types of crowns. They are biocompatible with the oral tissues which makes them more suitable for use.

Single-visit crowns #

Single-visit crowns are also known as cerec crowns which are advanced crowns made with cad cam technology. There is no need for physical impressions, this requires digital impressions which are taken by using intraoral scanners, and then this 3D data is sent to the cerec machine for designing the crown and manufacturing or milling followed by sintering of the crown. These are very accurate and highly aesthetic as they have translucency effects also.

Benefits of single visit crowns #

• Highly accurate
• Biocompatible with the oral tissues
• Highly aesthetic
• Durable and long-lasting
• Saves a lot of time
• Very precise in every aspect
• No need for physical impressions
• No need for temporary crown placements
• Has multipurpose uses
• Crown can be received on the day of treatment itself
• Strong and less susceptible to breakage
• No seepage through the crown due to the exact fit of the crown to the teeth.