What is crown?
Crown is a “cap” covering your natural tooth underneath for protection or aesthetics. It is made in dental laboratory for exact shape of your tooth.
There are various materials available for construction of the crown such as: ceramic, porcelain, zirconium, resin, gold, metal etc.
Each of the materials has its advantages
and dentist will advise you on which would be the best option for you.
Crowns can cover an entire tooth or just a part of it, depending on the case. We often call partial crowns an Onlay or Inlay.
Crown procedure includes 2 appointments.
THE PROCEDURE:
1) On the fi rst appointment it is very likely, that dentist will administer numbing injection, to keep you comfortable.
Because of that, we will recommend you to eat before the appointment, as you shouldn’t eat anything or drink any hot liquids until numbness wears down - that will prevent you from biting your own tongue or burning your mouth.
Dentist will prepare your tooth,
by shaving a thin layer all around.
Then he will take impression of your mouth with silicon - like material.
This material will set in your mouth after just a few minutes, giving us a mould of the prepared tooth and surrounding areas.
On this appointment we will choose the shade of the crown with you.
This impression will be send to the dental lab, which will construct the crown and sent it back to us. In some cases, dentist will place a temporary crown, that will protect the tooth from sensitivity to hot and cold.
If you loose your temporary crown, don’t panic. You can give us a call and we can make a new one, or you can wait until the fi t of your permanent crown, if it doesn’t bother you.
After the procedure, you won’t be able to eat for few hours, until the numbness wears away. Later, to prevent loosing of temporary crown, we would advise you to eat on the other side of your mouth.
2) It is unlikely, that you would need numbing injections on second appointment, but we would still advise you to eat something before, as we will ask you to hold on from eating after the procedure, for about 2 hours, to allow the cement to fully cure and hold the crown in place.
On the second appointment:
Dentist will check the fi t of the crown on your prepared tooth, then cement (glue) it on.
He will check if you are biting equally on both sides with stained paper.
That will show him, if your teeth are in contact on both sides,
and if any adjustments are needed for better comfort.
After the appointment, please allow the cement to fully cure, before eating.
If the crown was placed on one of your front teeth, we will advise you to cut hard foods (such as apples) in pieces, before chewing, instead of biting the piece off . That will prolong the life span of your crown.
If the crown was placed on one of your back teeth, we will advise you to eat hard crunchy foods (such as nuts or crackling) on the other side of your mouth. That will prolong the life span of your crown.
