Our crowns and bridges are typically used to restore damaged smiles. Crowns are singular caps that can fix and protect a tooth that has suffered from severe decay. Dental bridges are created with multiple dental crowns and allow us to replace missing teeth.
What Are Dental Crowns?
Crowns are typically placed on teeth when the cavity, old filling or broken area of the tooth is too large to repair with a filling. Crowns are also placed to protect a tooth after a root canal treatment has been done. Crowns can be made from a variety of materials, and different situations dictate the type of material used. Our lab technician works closely with the doctors to provide an excellent result, esthetically and functionally. We take great pride in our work placed in your mouth. The ultimate goal is for the crown to look and feel like a natural, healthy tooth.
The most beautiful crown for a tooth is, without question, all-porcelain or all-ceramic.
To define some terminology, porcelain is a particular type of ceramic that is built by stacking and firing. When we say ceramic, we include porcelain—porcelain is a type of ceramic. All-porcelain crowns are translucent, and their color is influenced by the color of the underlying teeth.
With porcelain-fused-to-metal crowns, there has to be an opaque layer put over the metal to block out its color. This makes it impossible to have a translucent restoration that mimics the translucency of natural teeth. Only with pure porcelain or pure ceramic can you have such translucency.
Aside from ceramic or all-porcelain crowns, we have several types that we use, each for different situations. We commonly use all-zirconia, porcelain-fused-to-zirconia, e-max (lithium disilicate), and porcelain-fused-to-metal crowns.
There are several factors that go into the selection of crown material: strength requirements, esthetic requirements, and the abrasiveness of the material against the opposing teeth. There is not a single crown that is clearly superior for all situations. We will recommend a type of crown after considering your needs as well as the benefits of various materials.
Bridges are fixed (non-removable) prostheses constructed to replace one or more missing teeth.
The teeth on either side of the existing space are used to anchor the bridge to restore functionality as well as esthetics. We construct beautiful porcelain-fused-to-metal bridges as well as porcelain-fused-to-zirconia bridges to produce the most esthetic, functional and long lasting results as possible.
A dental bridge fills in the gap left behind by missing teeth. By filling in this gap, you can regain full chewing and speaking abilities as well as your original smile!
Restore Your Smile at Harris Family Dentistry!
To find out more about dental bridges and crowns, you can call us at our office!