What is a Dental Crown?

What is a Dental Crown?

June 1, 2022

A dental crown is a thin tooth-colored cap placed to cover your damaged tooth. Dental crowns cover, protect, and restore your teeth’ shape when dental fillings fail to solve the problem. They can be made from resin, metals, porcelain, and ceramics. They do not require any special care over time other than maintaining good dental hygiene.

Why Would I Need a Dental Crown?

You may need dental crowns near you for the following reasons. They include :

  • To restore a severely worn down or broken tooth
  • To keep a weak tooth together if some parts of it are cracked or to protect a decayed, weak tooth from breaking
  • to cover a tooth that has gone through a root canal treatment
  • To cover a dental implant, a severely discolored or misshapen teeth

For kids, dental crowns procedures may be used on baby teeth to:

  • Protect your child’s teeth if they have a high risk of decay, especially if they have difficulty keeping up with their daily oral hygiene.
  • Save a tooth that has been severely damaged by decay and thus cannot support a filling.
  • Decrease the frequency of using general anesthesia for kids unable to because of their age, medical history, or behavior to cooperate with the requirements of proper dental carefully

You can visit our pediatric dentist on Upper East Side if your child may need to restore the function and shape of their teeth. Smile Up Pediatric Dentistry & Orthodontics has got the following dentist with pediatric skills and experiences, Dr. Robert Sonn, Dr. Amy Patel & Dr. Peter H. Chen.

The Pros and Cons of Dental Crowns

An important thing about dental crowns is that they can serve various purposes. Some of its advantages include:

  1. Esthetics
    Dental crowns are very representative of your natural teeth. The porcelain types, for example, can be matched to a natural tooth’s color and shape, and most people will not notice that you have a crown.
  2. It replaces worn-out fillings
    Dental crowns will not only replace your worn-out fillings, but they will also add strength back to your teeth. All dental fillings will break down over time, and it is possible that your current filling is on the verge of loosening. A replacement dental crown can help fix this by covering the whole of your tooth.
  3. A dental crown can protect your teeth after a root canal treatment
    Most of the time, your dentist will advise that you get a dental crown after undergoing a root canal treatment. It is recommended because the toot becomes more brittle after the blood vessels and nerves have been removed from your tooth.
  4. A dental crown can hold together a cracked tooth
    Over time your teeth may develop cracks because they get worn out. Sometimes the cracks may be on the surface of your tooth, at times, there may be deeper cracks. Depending on how severe these cracks are, your dentist can treat these areas using a dental crown,
  5. They can reshape your teeth
    Dental crowns are used to resize or reshape your tooth, like peg lateral. A peg lateral is a tooth that erupts and is way smaller than the surrounding teeth. Adding a dental crown to this tooth can help it appear more like other teeth.
  6. They can fix discoloration in your teeth
    A dental crown can also help fix teeth with abnormal staining or discoloration to cosmetic effects like fluorosis.

As mentioned above, there are various reasons why a dental crown can be beneficial. It is important to know the ideal things about dental crowns before committing to getting one. This will make you aware of your decision making and not be surprised by any of the following things:

  • Cost
    The cost of dental can vary and sometimes might be less affordable as compared to the other options
  • A possibility of recurring tooth decay: It is likely to a decay on your natural tooth supporting the dental crown. If this happens, your dentist has to remove the decay and replace it with a new crown.
  • A chance of sensitivity
    While it is less likely, you may experience sensitivity to hot and cold food and drinks after the dental crown.
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