A dental crown is a type of dental restoration that completely covers a tooth. A dental crown is usually used to secure a tooth which has been weakened by tooth decay, or even after having a root canal. Dental crowns can also be helpful to cover dental implants, to maintain a dental bridge it is in place, and to cover stained or misshaped teeth. Dental crowns are held in position with a dental cement. These crowns must be customized to fit the precise size and shape of the tooth.
The dentist must prepare the tooth for the crown carefully. The dentist usually takes x-rays on the tooth, and carries out a root canal if needed. This particular root canal may help prevent an infection of the tooth's pulp. The dentist subsequently files down the tooth, to create space for the crown. Any important parts of the tooth missing must be built-up, or filled up, like a cavity. The dentist then simply creates an impression of the tooth, by using a dental impression composite. The dentist typically makes a temporary crown in his clinic that you should use, and a form of your tooth is delivered to an outside laboratory to make the final product. The creation of the final crown usually takes about three weeks.
Dental crowns are made of many different materials. Metal crowns are certainly cost-effective, but they are normally utilized for the very back molars, since hardly any people find metallic looking teeth attractive. All-resin crowns are also offered, however they wear down easily and therefore are more prone to breakage than other types of dental crowns. All-porcelain crowns offer you the most effective color matches to the normal tooth, however, these are prone to breaking down the opposite teeth, and are also not too good. This sort of crown is most appropriate if a crown for the front teeth is necessary. Porcelain-fused-to-metal crowns are deemed as the ideal over-all crown to utilize. They are basically a metal crown covered in porcelain. This provides you the durability of the metal dental crown and the tooth-matching color of the porcelain crown. The porcelain on these dental crowns may scratch, exposing the metal beneath, thus there is absolutely no true perfect dental crown out there.
These types of dental crowns may range in price depending on the content it is constructed from, among other factors, like the costs your dentist charges pertaining to his professional expertise in fixing your tooth as well as setting up the shape for your dental crown. Prices do range from as little as $500, to as much as $3,000 per tooth. The porcelain-fused-to-metal variety may be one of the most cost effective. All-porcelain and all-resin types are typically the most costly, due to the bigger skill associated with creating, and color-matching them.