A dental crown is a tooth-shaped "cap" that is placed over a tooth - to cover the tooth to restore its shape and size, strength, and improve its appearance. Permanent crowns can be made from porcelain, ceramic, zirconia, metals (stainless steel, gold, or alloys), composite resin, and a combination of materials. While selecting the material for your crown, we will consider factors such as your tooth’s location, how much of the tooth will show when you smile, the position of your gum tissue, the function of the tooth that needs the crown, how much natural tooth is remaining and colour of the surrounding teeth. The lifespan of a crown can vary between 5 to 15 years. Some crowns are sturdier than others, so they may last longer.
Dental Crown Procedure
Preparing a tooth for a crown usually requires two visits to Smile Centre. At the first visit, we may take an OPG to check the roots of the tooth receiving the crown and surrounding bone. If the crown portion of the tooth has been extensively damaged, it is important to reinforce the tooth with posts & cores after the root canal treatment, prior to the crown procedures. In such situations, if post and core procedures are not carried out prior to crown procedures, the entire tooth structure along with the crown can break away making the further restoration of the tooth extremely difficult.
The tooth that’s receiving the crown will be filed down across the top and sides. This will make space for the crown itself. After reshaping the tooth, a paste or putty is used to make an impression of the tooth that’s going to receive the crown. Impressions of the teeth above and below the tooth that’s getting the dental crown will also be made. This is done to make sure that the crown will not affect your bite. The impressions are sent to a dental laboratory to make crowns, this may take few days. During this first office visit, we will make a temporary crown to cover and protect the prepared tooth while you’re waiting on the permanent crown.
At the second visit, the permanent crown is placed after removing the temporary crown on your tooth. A local anesthetic is sometimes used to numb the tooth and the new crown is permanently cemented in place.
Dental crown care
The life of a crown can depend on the amount of “wear and tear” the crown is exposed to, how well you follow oral hygiene practices and personal mouth-related habits like Grinding or clenching your teeth, chewing ice, eating hard foods, biting your fingernails, Using your teeth to open packaging, etc. Careful attention to your crown can prolong its life. Practice careful brushing your teeth twice a day and flossing once a day.
Cost of Dental Crown
The cost of teeth caps in India is largely dependent upon the type of material chosen, laboratory cost, technique involved, warranty period, and additional procedures such as fillings, core build-ups, crown lengthening. The cost of All ceramic and Zirconia Caps caps is higher when compared to porcelain fused to metal or all-metal crowns. The cost of Porcelain fused to metal and metal caps is also varied depending upon the type of metal used such as titanium alloys and precious metal alloys are costly than Co-Cr alloys.
