604 Dental - Dental Crowns / Caps

Amalgam Fillings / Silver Mercury Fillings

White Fillings / Composite Fillings

What is a Dental Crown?

A dental crown (also known as a dental cap or single-unit fixed prosthesis) is a full coverage prosthetic tooth that is cemented onto your natural tooth. There are three main reasons why a tooth may require a dental crown:

1. When a large portion of your natural tooth has cracked or fractured.

2. When the vast majority of the tooth has a dental filling (more than half of the tooth is filling).

3. When the tooth has a root canal (the core of the tooth has been drilled away).

The dental crown treatment may require two visits to the dental office. At the first visit, the tooth is trimmed down by about 1mm in each direction to make space for the dental crown. Then a mould is taken and sent to the dental laboratory to fabricate the dental crown. A custom shade is taken to ensure that the permanent crown is shade matched to the natural teeth. A temporary crown is made and temporarily cemented onto the tooth. At the second visit, the temporary crown is removed, and the permanent crown is cemented.

The goal of the crown is to restore the structure, function and esthetic of the damaged tooth. Typically, a dental crown that is well made can last up to 30 years, provided the natural supporting tooth does not develop any cracks, fractures or cavities.

Disadvantages of Metal Materials

In the past, dental crowns used to be made of silver metals or gold metals. For esthetics, some porcelain was added on top of the metal crowns, but they chipped off very easily. There are four main downsides to metal crowns:

1. Crowns that are made of silver or gold are very poor in esthetics. Patients with metal crowns often avoid smiling because they may be embarrassed. This can have a significant impact on the patient's self confidence.

2. Some metal crowns contain Nickel, and Nickel very often causes an allergic reaction. Patients with nickel allergy may end up with long-term gum inflammation due to having a metal crown.

3. Metal crowns that contain gold can be very expensive because gold is a precious metal.

4. Porcelain that has been added to metal crowns tend to chip off very easily. This leaves sharp edges that cut the tongue, and a horrible appearance.

Advantages of Zirconia Materials

At 604 Dental, we prefer to delivery zirconia crowns (also known as ceramic crowns). There are four main advantages to zirconia crowns:

1. Esthetics: Zirconia crowns are white, and we choose a custom shade to match your natural teeth.

2. Strength: Zirconia is the hardest material used in dentistry today. Zirconia crowns are more than 4x stronger than traditional metal crowns. This means that the preparation of the tooth for zirconia crowns is more conservative because it require less cutting of natural tooth structure.

3. Hypoallergenic: Zirconia is the second most compatible material to the human body in the world (the most compatible material to the human body is titanium). This means that it is not likely to develop an allergy to Zirconia.

4. Inexpensive: Zirconia crowns are much cheaper than crowns that contain gold or other precious metals.

Zirconia is currently the ideal material of choice for dental crowns.