Crowns & Bridges

Crowning or capping a tooth will usually take two to three visits. At the first visit, we will prepare your tooth to receive its new crown. First we will shape it to fit inside the new covering. This will involve some drilling to give the tooth a uniform shape. We will numb the tooth and the surrounding area beforehand. If there is very little tooth structure left to begin with, we may have to build up the tooth with filling material, rather than remove tooth structure, to support the crown.

After the tooth is prepared, we will take impressions of your teeth, either digitally or with reliable, putty-like impression materials, and send them to the dental laboratory. There, the impressions will be used to make models of your teeth for the creation of a crown. The models will serve as guides to the highly skilled lab technicians, who will ensure that your new crown is designed to enhance your smile and function well within your bite.

Before you leave the office, we will attach a temporary crown to your tooth to protect it until the permanent crown is ready. At the second visit, your permanent crown will be attached to your tooth with either a resin that hardens when exposed to a special light source, or a type of permanent cement.

Crowns can also be used to create a lifelike replacement for a missing tooth. This is done with bridgework, which spans the space of the missing tooth and requires at least three crowns. Two of those crowns will be placed over healthy teeth on either side of the missing tooth; these healthy teeth are referred to as abutment teeth. The two crowned abutment teeth become supports for a third crown placed in between them; that third crown is referred to as a pontic. If more than one tooth is missing, more crowns will be needed to bridge the gap in between the abutment teeth.

The number of abutment teeth necessary to replace missing teeth is influenced by the number of missing teeth, the size and length of the abutment tooth roots, the amount of bone support each abutment tooth has, as well as where in the mouth the missing tooth is located. For example, if you have three missing teeth, four abutment teeth may be necessary, thereby creating a seven-tooth bridge. Engineering and designing of the bridge requires an understanding of how to replace teeth, as well as the biology of the supporting gum and bone tissue.

Replacing missing teeth — even the ones in back — is important to help restore chewing ability as well as preserve facial contours and reestablish a pleasing smile. Most crowns are made of tooth-colored ceramic materials, which are shaped to look and function just like normal healthy teeth. Crowns and bridgework may sometimes be the best tooth-replacement option, especially when dental implants aren't an option...

Dear Doctor magazine examines two innovative strategies for improving your smile. In many instances, these two restorative techniques can produce nearly identical aesthetic results, even though they are designed differently for handling different structural problems...