Dental Crown & Bridge
What is a tooth crown?
A tooth crown or a cap is a restoration that sit over a tooth, bringing it back to its normal size, shape and provides strength.
Dental crown is necessary over a damaged and root canal tooth to preserve it. Moreover, if a root canal treated tooth is left without a cap it usually presents with fracture in coming months or years.
Dental crowns are also utilized to correct various kinds of cosmetic dental problems like spacing, discolored teeth, broken teeth, cracked teeth, severely worn out teeth, anomalies in tooth shape or if you desire to change the appearance of your teeth.
What is a Dental Bridge?
A minimum of three tooth crowns joined together is called a bridge. Bridge is used to replace a single or multiple adjacent missing tooth. The procedure of fabricating dental bridge remains same as that for a tooth crown and are generally preferred over dentures because they are user friendly.
Dental bridge like a tooth cap can be fabricated from same materials as mentioned above and with good care of oral hygiene they can last 10 – 15 years.
We specialize in same day crown and bridge. We are one of the very few dental clinics in India to have in-clinic facility for making our crown and bridge through CAD / CAM system of Dentsply Sirona.
Types of Dental crowns
- Metal crowns are made from base metal alloys like cobalt chromium and they do not cause any reaction with surrounding tissues. They have excellent strength but metallic color of these crowns limits their usefulness to the back teeth only. For pediatric cases prefabricated stainless steel crowns from 3M ESPE are used.
- Porcelain fused to metal or PFM crowns are made by giving a ceramic coating over a metal base cap. Ceramic coating enhances the cosmetic acceptance of these crowns. But due to metal base these are opaque and not an appropriate choice for front teeth. These crowns have a propensity to develop a black line at margin due to metal and chipping of outer ceramic layer.
- Full Zirconia crowns are made from Zirconium dioxide mineral and are stronger than ceramic and some metal crowns. They are split resistant, stiffer and stronger. Therefore, they are an excellent option for back tooth cap and bridge. Cosmetic appeal of these strong crowns can be increased by layering them with porcelain / ceramic thus making them suitable for front teeth as well.
- Full Ceramic crowns these crowns are made only from ceramic. These crowns have the exceptional quality of resembling natural tooth; reason being ceramic is translucent and light can pass through it making it appear life- like. Because of their cosmetic appeal they are a good choice for front teeth cap.