Dental Crowns: What You Need To Know
Posted on: 13 April 2022
A dental crown is a hollow cap shaped like a tooth. It's placed over a tooth to help restore the tooth's strength, size, and shape. Before you consider getting dental crowns, you will want to know as much as possible about them.
Dental Crown Applications
Dental crown installation may be necessary in the following cases:
- You have large cavities that your dentist can't fill
- You have chipped, decayed, or discolored teeth
- You have missing teeth
- You want to cover a dental implant
- You're experiencing tooth sensitivity following a root canal
Your dentist can assess your oral condition in the above cases before recommending dental crown treatment.
The Dental Crown Installation Process
Dentists use different procedures to install dental crowns including:
-
Traditional crown installation
With the traditional process, you visit your dentist twice for complete crown installation. During the first visit, your dentist examines your tooth for damage or decay. If your tooth has an infection, treatment may be necessary before crown placement. Then, your dentist can prepare the targeted tooth by filing it down to allow your chosen crown to fit.
After shaping the tooth appropriately, your dentist creates an impression of the tooth using paste or putty. The dentist sends the impression to a laboratory to create a customized dental crown. This may take several weeks. Finally, your doctor fixes a temporary crown on the prepared tooth to offer protection before the permanent installation of the custom crowns.
The second visit happens after the lab creates the customized dental crowns from the impression. Your dentist will first remove the temporary crown and fix the customized crown permanently using dental cement.
-
Same-Day crown Installation
Dentists can also install crowns on your teeth in one appointment using computer-aided design (CAD). In this case, your dentist will use a wand to scan and take pictures of your tooth. Then, he'll upload these images to computer software to generate a 3D model of the tooth. The dentist uses this model to make a ceramic crown within a few minutes.
Dental Crown Aftercare
Proper dental crown aftercare is essential to avoid damaging the crowns. In this regard, you should:
- Brush your teeth gently, especially when you have a temporary crown, to prevent crown loosening.
- Avoid chewing hard foods to prevent crown damage.
- Attend all dental follow-up procedures after crown placement as this can help identify complications early and get a solution.
These dental crown aftercare tips can help you heal faster and preserve your crown.
There are several things you should know about dental crowns, including when to get dental crowns and what dental crown placement and aftercare entail. Understanding this information can help you undergo the crown installation procedure more confidently.
Share