What are Dental Crowns?

Dental crowns are tooth-shaped caps that are fitted over your natural tooth to cover and restore its strength, size, shape, and appearance. If you need dental crowns for an anterior tooth, you will find porcelain crowns ideal because they are transparent and appear like your natural teeth.

Currently, porcelain crowns are considered the best a tooth can get. Porcelain is a ceramic fabricated by firing and stacking, and ceramic is merely porcelain. Therefore, if you want your tooth to have the desired transparent appearance, pure porcelain is the only material that can satisfy your desires. Unfortunately, the expertise needed to place porcelain crowns on your front teeth is challenging. However, if you get them from the dentist in Coral Springs, you can rest assured your aesthetic appearance becomes enhanced with porcelain crowns.

Which Types of Porcelain Crowns Are Available?

Porcelain crowns are available in different varieties, and you can select a type best suited for your aesthetic preferences from the cosmetic dentist near you. The types of porcelain crowns available with dentists are:

• Feldspathic porcelain: is the most popularly available and the most beautiful.
• Empress crowns: appear like glass but are made from ceramic.
• Procera crowns: with a milled ceramic interior and traditional porcelain on the exterior. This crown is incredibly robust, and cementing it with ordinary bridge cement is possible over the tooth.
• Lava crowns: have transparent zirconia on the exterior because of their baked layer.
• Zirconia crowns: usually appear natural and do not create a black line like porcelain fused to metal crowns near the gum line.
• Emax crowns: are gaining in popularity and are best suited for people allergic to metals.

Porcelain crowns are favored by dentists among different types of restorations because they can be colored and shaped to match your surrounding natural teeth. Porcelain crowns require customization in dental laboratories before securing them to your front teeth. After having porcelain crowns over the affected tooth, the dentist can harden them using a special curing light to securely restore your targeted tooth.

The Procedure for Getting Porcelain Crowns

The process for getting porcelain crowns is not unfamiliar to other dental crowns. First, your targeted tooth undergoes cleaning and reshaping for preparation to accommodate the porcelain crown. Although the preparation process is uncomfortable, you receive local anesthesia from your dentist to manage the discomfort. Whether you need the porcelain crown to cover a decayed or discolored tooth or need it to achieve crown lengthening, the procedure remains the same.

Removal of the tooth structure is essential to ensure the crown snugly fits over the targeted tooth. The dentist takes impressions of your prepared tooth with dental putty and sends them over to the dental laboratory to fabricate a fresh restoration.

Your prepared tooth receives a temporary crown from the dentist for protection because the laboratory needs at least three weeks to customize your restoration. You can reschedule an appointment with the dentist after three weeks when the dentist starts the permanent crown placement by removing the temporary crowns. The new crown is placed over your prepared tooth, checking for color and fit. If the dentist finds everything acceptable, the crown is firmly bonded to your natural tooth with dental cement.

After-Care for Porcelain Crowns

Caring for porcelain crowns is not challenging but straightforward to keep them appearing beautiful and healthy for their lifespan. Porcelain crowns require the same dental hygiene routine as your natural teeth. You must indulge in brushing your teeth at least two times per day for two minutes each, floss your teeth at least once and get dental exams and cleanings from your dentist every six months. Porcelain crowns are naturally transparent and resemble the color of the natural tooth. However, they are not durable as porcelain fused metal crowns.

If you have porcelain crowns over your front teeth and want to safeguard your investment in your smile and appearance, you must care for the restorations appropriately by avoiding harmful mouth-related habits like chewing on ice, fingernails, or opening packages with your teeth. Similarly, you must avoid biting on hard foods to protect your dental crowns. If you clench and grind your teeth, discuss the problem with your dentist, who might recommend wearing a nightguard to protect your porcelain crown and the surrounding teeth.

If you think you want to restore a front tooth with porcelain dental crowns in Coral Springs, FL, schedule an appointment with Designer Smiles, FL, to receive them over your teeth.