TREATMENTS

Crowns

 

Crowning a tooth is necessary when a tooth is too weak to reliably fix with a filling alone. Teeth can be weakened by cavities, fractures or root canal therapy. This is an extremely reliable technique for repairing the most severe of dental problems.

Fitting a crown requires at least two visits to our office. Initially Dr. Rickard shapes the tooth, takes an impression and fits it with a temporary plastic  crown.

On the subsequent visit he will remove the temporary crown, and then fit and adjust the final crown. Finally, we will cement the crown into place and you have a new beautiful looking tooth. 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Types of crowns
 
All Ceramic Crowns
 
All ceramic crowns are brilliant and lifelike.They transmit light and can be made to the shape ot color of any teeth.  They are most cosmetic crowns that you can get so they are almost always the choice when crowning a front tooth. Porcelain crowns are more prone to chipping than other crowns so they are usually not used on back molars with high biting forces.
 
Full Gold Crowns
 
Except for its color, gold is the best material to make a crown. It is smooth, it requires less tooth removal of natural tooth and it is impossible to chip. It is the most biocompatable of all dental materials (except  perhaps for Titanium which is also an option).  One of the great things about gold is that it is softer than natural teeth which means that as time goes on the crown wears down instead of your natural teeth. Porcelain is harder than your natural teeth so over the years it can wear down your natural opposing teeth. Consider gold crowns where color is not an issue such as the last upper molar which is not seen by most people when they smile.
 
Porcelain Fused to Gold Crowns
 
A porcelain fused to gold crown has a thin coping made of gold or other precious and semipreciuos metals over which a thin layer of procelain is added. They are strong enough to be used on back molars and are still beautiful enough to match your existing teeth. Porcelain can chip but only half as often as all ceramic crowns. Over time you will be able to see a dark line at that base of the crown as your gum receeds.
 
Porcelain Fused to Nonprecious Crowns
 
Porcelain fused to non precious (base) metal crowns are similar to porcelain to fused to gold crowns except they are stronger and slightly less expensive. Dr Rcikard does not offer these types of crowns because of a high percentage of people are allergic to the nickle used in the base metal.