Dental Crowns

What are Dental Crowns?
A dental crown is a procedure your dentist does to cover up a damaged tooth or teeth. This procedure provides strength to the already damaged tooth and improves its alignment, shape, and appearance. Dentists place the dental crown on top of the implant so that the tooth will have a better structure and function. They do the procedure by using ceramic or porcelain that matches the natural color of your teeth. Additionally, other materials can be used too, such as acrylic, gold, and metal alloys. Alloys provide the teeth with better support but are preferably suited to people with black teeth. Generally, porcelain and metal shells are the ones commonly used due to their attractive and robust features.


Dental Crowns History
A dental crown is an ancient trend practiced since 200 AD: the Etruscan used bridges, crowns, and gold for teeth restoration. In the 1880s, Charles H. Crown patented the Jacket Crown by using ceramic. Later on, E.B. Paulding improved the proper use of Jacket Crown from the early 1900s until the 1950s. At the time, microcracking was a crucial issue that neglected the effective use of Jacket Crown because, unlike it, microcracking created an underlying problem for the gums and teeth.
Why Choose Dental Crowns?
Before undergoing the dental crown procedure, you must understand that it does not come with a cookie-cutter size that would fit all patients. Our seasoned dentist will discuss with you the ideal crown for you to address your needs.
Molding your tooth is one of the initial processes he needs to fit the crown to your tooth correctly. After the molding process, lab technicians in the same office premises make it with a custom-designed material before placing it over your tooth with a unique adhesive. You can also be sure that the shade of your crown matches the color of your natural tooth.
Initially, it may take a few hours or days to get used to having the crown attached to your newly-restored and functional tooth, but you will eventually get used to it. Lastly, if at all, you feel pain, the dentist can always prescribe you a painkiller.
How Dental Crown Works
Step 1: Investigation, Tooth Reshaping, Impression, and Temporary Crown
During your first visit to us, we will take an X-ray of your tooth and jawbone to check some signs of decay and other injuries to the tooth's pulp that could become a potential cause of infection. Any tooth decay will be treated beforehand. Sometimes, root canal treatment may also be necessary.
The tooth's top and sides are filed down to make room for the crown to be placed over it. The degree of reshaping depends on the materials your crown is made of. Metal-based crowns are thinner, thus needing less removal of the tooth's structure than porcelain crowns do. A temporary crown will be placed on your tooth first for protection until the permanent crown has been made and is ready to be placed over it.
Step 2: Permanent Crown Placement
During your second visit, local anesthesia will be injected to numb the treated area. Then, a temporary crown should be removed, assuming that it was placed on your first visit. The process will ensure that the crown's size and shape fit and the color match your natural tooth before a dental cement joins it over the tooth. It is crucial to ensure that the crown does not clash with the opposite teeth, which could cause a problem with the patient's bite.
Step 3: Same-Day Crowns Placement Procedure
Sometimes, there is no need to send impressions of dental crowns to a dental laboratory. Instead, it can be produced for 15 minutes and placed on the same day. This method is called computer-aided design and manufacture of dental crowns (CAD/CAM), where images are uploaded into software that prints the tooth's 3-D model made of ceramic material.
Benefits of Dental crowns
Improved Chewing Motion
One of the dental crown features is it uses some of the most robust materials available today, such as metal, ceramic, alloys, and gold. Now, you do not need to worry about chewing the food that you like, however hard they may be because dental crowns provide rigid support to the newly-restored and functional tooth.
Flexibility
People turn to dental crowns for their flexible use. It is for stabilizes a tooth and be used as an adjunct treatment with dental implants. It also strengthens a tooth after a post-root canal treatment.
Restores The Appearance of Teeth
Aside from tooth stability and relief from dental pain, it fully restores the aesthetics by bringing back your tooth's shape and natural color before it was damaged, making it look natural and healthy again.
Versatile
Aside from tooth stability and relief from dental pain, it fully restores the aesthetics by bringing back your tooth's shape and natural color before it was damaged, making it look natural and healthy again.
Protection
A dental crown serves as a cover to your dental implant or tooth that has cracked, decayed, or broken to avoid further damage caused by bacteria.
Relieves Pain From Damaged Teeth
It is common for you to feel severe pain when drinking or eating if your tooth enamel is fractured, chipped, decaying, or infected. That is why many people turn to dental crowns as they are not only flexible to use, but they also provide instant protection, and thus, relief to your damaged tooth.
Custom-Made For You
Our dental lab team will see to it that your crown matches your tooth's natural shape, size, and color that once it heals, you will forget you had the treatment in the first place.
Aesthetic
You do not want other people noticing your prosthetic tooth, do you? The porcelain material used to cap your tooth has perfectly the same texture as your natural tooth enamel. Our seasoned cosmetic dentists guarantee the perfect hue and contours, so it blends perfectly with your smile and does not obstruct your bite.
Why Deal With Us

Final Words
A dental crown covers a damaged tooth. There are various materials this can be made of, such as metal, gold, alloy, or porcelain. Whether you opt for metal to cover your molars or porcelain to cover and blend with the color of your front teeth, here at Glen Park Dental, we can discuss so we can figure out and meet your dental needs. It is our pleasure to hear from you, so leave us a comment at Glen Park Dental.
Frequently Asked Questions
A dental crown is, basically, a "cap" that is molded to cover and restore the size, shape, strength, and appearance of your damaged tooth. The crown is cemented to fully encase the whole area of the tooth visible at and above the gum line.
There are various materials a permanent crown can be made of, such as metal, porcelain-fused-to-metal, all resin, or all ceramic. However, it may take two weeks before it is made and ready to use. Meanwhile, to temporarily protect and restore the tooth, a temporary crown, made of acrylic or stainless steel, is placed.
The procedure is as simple as filling and takes less than one hour on the same day, and you do not need to go back to the dentist for a second visit. However, regular crowns require two visits.
Avoid eating food that is sticky and hard as it can hurt a newly crowned tooth. Wait for the permanent crown to settle in.
Since the dentist will administer anesthesia to the area being treated, the experience is not painful. If anything, you may feel only mild discomfort. Ultimately, there are far more benefits of getting a dental crown than not getting one.
Most crowns only need a root canal if a tooth is severely infected or inflamed.
Usually, crowns can last between 5 to 15 years, sometimes, 30 years. Factors like daily oral hygiene, clenching and grinding at night, the food you eat, and habits like chewing on ice can affect your crown's longevity altogether.
Dental crown treatment requires two appointments. During the first appointment, your tooth is cleaned and filed down to reduce its size to make room for your crown over it. Your tooth impression will then be taken and sent to our dental laboratory, where they will make your permanent crown. Meanwhile, a temporary crown made of acrylic or stainless steel will be put over your tooth, so you will get the temporary restoration and protection before you get to have the permanent crown two weeks after the initial visit.
It is normal to feel a little post-op pain, but it will slowly disappear on its own in two weeks. A bad bite is one of the most common reasons for post-op pain from a dental crown. However, if it persists and worsens beyond that, you need your tooth re-evaluated by your dentist.
A loose crown can enable bacteria to seep under it and infect the tooth, thus triggering throbbing nerve pain.
HOW CAN WE HELP?
Schedule Your Consultation
Book a consultation with Dr. Hakimi to discuss your dental implant needs. We look forward to hearing from you by phone, by email or through the contact form below.