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The primary purpose of dental crowns is to repair, protect, and support a weakened or damaged tooth. At DeClerck Family Dental in Findlay, OH, your dentist, Dr. Krystal DeClerck, regularly uses dental crowns for repairing and enhancing smiles. To learn if a dental crown can help with your specific concerns, here is some information on crowns and how they can help you out.
What Exactly are Dental Crowns?
Dental crowns are caps or coverings that are specifically made to cover a damaged tooth in order to restore its durability, shape, and size, all while enhancing its appearance. Once in place, a crown will completely cover the area of the tooth that’s visible in the gum line. In most cases, a porcelain crown will suffice for most dental concerns, but crowns can also be made from different materials. For instance, if durability is crucial, gold is the best option. However, it’s not exactly aesthetically pleasing, particularly if you require a crown for a tooth in the front area of your mouth.
With that said, other materials such as PFM or porcelain fused to metal, which contains a porcelain exterior to give that natural look and a metal interior to provide strength, as well as porcelain dental crowns with zirconia are excellent choices. These materials are commonly used for restoring back teeth due to their durability. It will be up to your Findlay, OH, dentist to decide which material will best fit your needs.
What are Dental Crowns Used For?
Crowns are typically utilized for the following dental concerns:
Looking to Receive Dental Crowns?
Call (419) 422-8972 to schedule a consultation with your dentist, Dr. Krystal DeClerck of DeClerck Family Dental in Findlay, OH.
Have you chipped a tooth, lost a large filling or undergone root canal therapy? Dental crowns from Dr. Krystal DeClerck in Findlay, OH, address these issues and more. A predictable and often-used alternative to dental extraction, porcelain crowns replace large amounts of damaged enamel, recreating excellent aesthetics and oral function.
How crowns restore damaged teeth
Basically, a crown is a tooth-shaped jacket of premium-quality porcelain. It encases the healthy parts of an injured tooth, recreating its natural appearance, matching its neighboring teeth and allowing it to bite and chew normally once again. A crown covers the tooth above the gum line and spares a tooth from additional fillings or even extraction.
Dr. DeClerck can tell from examination and digital X-ray imaging if your tooth is a good candidate for a porcelain crown. Sometimes, when a tooth is infected or severely fractured, she will perform root canal therapy first to stave off infection, relieve pain and seal the tooth against further bacterial invasion.
Steps to a crown
1. Dr. DeClerck will anesthetize the tooth and when it's numb, remove the damaged areas. She'll shape the tooth to receive the crown. Sometimes, she adds a post to create adequate supporting structure.
2. The Findlay dentist takes oral impressions. These negative imprints of the tooth and the ones adjacent to it help the dental lab fabricate your crown with proper size, shape, and bite.
3. Your dentist places a temporary restoration over the tooth so it looks and functions as normally as possible while the permanent crown is made.
4. You return to DeClerck Family Dental to permanently bonding of the new dental crown. Because of advanced fabrication processes, most crowns fit well right away. However, most patients need a few days to adjust to this new restoration, say experts at the Cleveland Clinic.
Crowns have other uses
Crowns also play a role in tooth replacement procedures. For instance, some people opt to replace one or more missing teeth with an appliance called a bridge. Composed of one or more pontic, or artificial teeth, bridges affix to adjacent healthy teeth on opposite ends of a smile gap. The adjacent teeth, also known as abutment teeth, must be ground down to receive porcelain crowns which hold the artificial teeth in place.
Also, crowns restore dental implants. These highly successful tooth replacements have three parts: a titanium implant which resides in the jaw bone, a metal alloy abutment, or extension post, and a crown to finish off the artificial tooth.
You and your crown
You should enjoy a great partnership for ten years or more as long as you floss, brush and get your six-month cleanings and examinations with Dr. DeClerck. Also, ask her about a bite guard if you grind your teeth. This acrylic appliance will save your teeth, and your crown, from undue wear and tear.
Find out more
For more information on crowns or the other fine restorative dental services DeClerck Family Dental provides, please call your dentist in Findlay, OH, at (419) 422-8972 for an appointment.