A Guide to Dental Crowns

While eating, you suddenly bite on something hard and feel a sharp pain in your mouth. Upon checking the mirror, you realize that you just cracked one of your teeth. This certainly doesn’t sit well with you since you have an important business conference in a few months, which requires you to look presentable. But that’s not to say that you’re doomed to look ridiculous on your big day. On the contrary, you can easily have your tooth fixed with the help of a dental crown.

To give you a better idea on what a dental crown really is, we have prepared some basic details about it below.

Definition

A dental crown is a tooth-shaped dental restoration that is designed to cover the entire portion of your damaged tooth in order to bring back its original appearance, strengthen it, and protect it from future damage. Aside from that, a crown can also be used to cover a dental implant or firmly secure a dental bridge.

Procedure

In getting a crown, you need to drop by your dentist’s clinic twice. On your initial visit, your dentist first determines whether your affected tooth is healthy enough to receive the crown by taking a few X-rays of it. If your dentist doesn’t discover anything wrong with your tooth, he injects it and the gum tissues that surround it with a local anesthetic. Once the anesthetic takes effect, your dentist trims your tooth down to make adequate room for the crown. He then applies a paste or putty to your tooth as well as the teeth above and below it to take impressions of them. After taking the impressions, your dentist covers your tooth with a temporary crown to protect it while he constructs the permanent crown for two to three weeks. On your second visit, your dentist takes the temporary crown off and fits the permanent crown over your tooth. If there are no problems with the permanent crown, your dentist once again injects your tooth with a local anesthetic before finally cementing the crown permanently in place.

For more information on crowns, don’t hesitate to get in touch with our Carmela, IN dental office by calling 317-597-8748 or by filling out our patient form.