If your dentist has recommended a dental crown for you – you may be wondering just how does a dental crown work? You may be anxious about the procedure or perhaps the financial investment you are thinking about making; so, let us take a moment to share with you all the information you may need to answer this question, and so put your mind at ease. We would also encourage you to put your trust in our professional expertise as we explain step by step exactly what your dental crown is and how it will work for you.
How does a dental crown work? Your new dental crown – what they are
Your new dental crown is essentially a tooth-shaped cap; tailor-made in modern, high-performance ceramic just for you. It is crafted as a perfect fit to protect, strengthen and conceal a damaged natural tooth on your gum line.
Your new dental crown is bespoke designed and made to restore your smile, repair both the appearance and functional contribution your old natural tooth used to make at mealtimes, and – by way of its protective construction – make the remaining but weakened part of it, resilient to further possible damage which may occur if left exposed.
Your new dental crown works by acting as the ideal remedy to provide both the mouth comfort and the level of personal confidence you are looking to achieve when you receive such a tooth restoration technique as this, at Wimpole Street Dental Clinic.
How does a dental crown work? Your new dental crown – what they are made of
Dental crowns are made from many materials to create the unique size, shape or exact fit required for each individual patient. We recommend full-ceramic crowns as they deliver the most aesthetically-pleasing results for our valued patients.
- Temporary crowns – used in preparation for the fitting of veneers, inlays, onlays, partial crowns or dental bridges; made from mostly all-resin composite
- Metal-ceramic crowns or porcelain-fused-to-metal crowns – a porcelain veneered metal framework; for years, the ‘gold standard’ in dentistry
- Solid crowns (metal) or stainless-steel crowns – only in exceptional circumstances are they used for front teeth (e.g., American rap star). A gold version helps those patients with heavy teeth grinding. It can be made as a non-noble alloy version to reduce cost.
- Post crowns – anchored with a pin to the tooth – sometimes used after a Root Canal Treatment but now rarely
- Partial crowns – covering a small part of the tooth – full ceramic, metal-free ceramic materials replace a portion but not all of the clinical (visible) crown
- Porcelain crowns – interchangeable term with full-ceramic crowns. The material does not contain metal
- Implant crowns – placed on the titanium screw, sitting in the bone
- Ceramic crowns – (see porcelain crowns), also used for dental bridges
- Telescopic crowns – full-ceramic, non-noble alloy or gold crowns underneath a removable ‘telescopic’ denture
A full-ceramic dental crown choice means we can copy your natural tooth’s best features perfectly so no-one will ever realise it is a tooth restoration and not the real thing.
How does a dental crown work? Your new dental crown – how they are fitted
Your journey to receiving a new dental crown starts with a booked appointment for consultation. If you decide to proceed, the natural tooth is prepared to fit the dental crown we craft as precisely as possible. We create a digital impression of the natural tooth which needs to be ‘crowned’, for a member of our master dental technician team working in our dental laboratory in London or Munich to produce your very own restoration.
We take the professional time required of us to produce the crown in high-performance ceramic, adjusting the material to create the exact colour of your natural to deliver a perfect match. Your new dental crown will be virtually indistinguishable from the look and feel of your natural teeth. As we create your new dental crown, we fit a temporary crown on the affected tooth. When your bespoke dental crown is ready we clean your affected tooth, fitting the new tooth restoration to it securely using adhesive dental cement.
Post-treatment, we recommend our patients schedule routine dental appointments with us, so we can examine and assess the stability of the new dental crown, now fitted and in daily use. We actually design the full-ceramic crowns which we use ourselves in our own dental laboratory. These are the dental crowns we rely on, in clinic. We have complete control over our craft. We know every dental crown component used so please trust us to create a custom-made restoration crafted to the highest standards in modern dentistry, by our expert team.