Crowns provide you with strong worry free teeth by protecting what are left of them, enhancing their strength and appearance.

Why do we need to crown teeth?

Over the years your teeth have been destroyed by dental decay and by the process of filling your teeth. These weaken the teeth and can lead to stress fractures.

There comes a time when the traditional treatments are not strong enough to withstand the forces we apply during chewing. Crowns will provide this strength. They can also protect root filled teeth from a potentially disastrous fracture.

There are two types of crowns. This article describes a laboratory crown. To have these done the dentist will require approximately a 1.5 hour appointment. Firstly your dentist will work with you to select the best tooth colour for you from a special shade chart. Then after giving you adequate local so you don’t feel any pain and are comfortable any old fillings are removed, a core material is placed, the tooth shaped appropriately, impressions taken and a temporary crown placed.

The impression material used for crowns does stick to dry skin and is very hard to remove. For this reason we generally apply vaseline to lubricate the skin and facilitate the easy removal of this material.

This impression is sent to an outside dental lab so the crowns can be professionally fabricated.

At the next appointment 2 to 3 weeks later, the crowns come back from the dental laboratory and are bonded into place. The next day your crowns are ready for full chewing.

Crowns generally last around 10 years.

The second type of a crown is a Cerec crown. The advantage of these over the lab crown is that they are completed in one appointment with no need for temporary crowns or the impression materials.

Both types of crowns restore the natural look for a tooth giving you nice white healthy looking teeth.