Dentistry in the 21st century is all about helping you to hang onto your teeth for life. For most of us that means our adult teeth are going to see at least 50 years of service.
We use our teeth every day and over time they do start to wear out. Plus there are certain things that can happen to them that could finish them off altogether, but we can extend their life with crowns. Here at Crofts Dental Practice in Essex, dental crowns are a versatile treatment that is used in several different ways.
What is a crown?
A crown is a porcelain cover for your tooth. It fits down over the entire tooth, covering it completely right down to the gum. Crowns are custom-made to blend in with your other teeth, and no one but you will know they are not your natural teeth.
Abscesses
If you get an infection inside your tooth, it will probably show up first as incredible pain and an abscess under the gum. The way we treat an infected tooth is to clean out the infected pulp, which is the softest part of the inner tooth, right down into the root. We then fill the root and cover it with a crown so that you can continue to use it to eat with.
Crowns to cover up ugly fillings
If your tooth is mostly filling, the filling material can show through the enamel and make your tooth an unattractive colour. When a tooth gets to this stage, it may not be very strong either. We can cover the tooth over so that it looks good again and also to extend its chewing life.
Crowns for buttresses
If you have lost a tooth or two, we may recommend that you replace them with a bridge. This is one or more teeth suspended on a metal framework and anchored at either end by a healthy tooth covered in a crown. The healthy teeth have to be ground down to receive the crowns.
Dental porcelain does not respond to whitening so if you also want your teeth whitened, get that done first and then get the crown to match your whiter teeth.