Crowns & Bridges

Crowns

What is a crown?

A crown is a protective covering cemented on to the tooth, usually made from porcelain fused to metal, zirconia or gold material.  This improves the tooth strength and minimises the risk of fracturing the tooth and also can improve the appearance of your teeth.  After endodontic treatment (root canal therapy) it is strongly advised a crown is placed on the tooth to prevent any breaks or fractures as once this treatment is completed the tooth is weakened and can be more brittle and susceptible to this occurring which could result in losing the tooth.

To prepare the tooth for a crown approximately 1-2mm is shaped off the enamel of the tooth under local anaesthetic, then a highly accurate impression is taken of the remaining tooth structure using a silicon type material and is sent off to our laboratory to construct your custom made crown, this usually takes up to two weeks for your crown to be returned to us ready to cement, as a lot of time and effort goes into creating the crown to ensure it is perfect.  After our dentists takes your impression and records your occlusion (bite) they will then record your shade, so we can get an exact colour match to your natural teeth and construct you a temporary crown made from an acrylic material to last you for the two weeks until we cement your final crown, this temporary looks and feels just like a natural tooth however is just not as strong.

At your cementation visit our dentist will remove your temporary crown, some patients require local anaesthetic and others don't, the cold air and water on the tooth can make it a little bit sensitive.  Our dentist will try in the crown and examine for perfect fit and shade and then we cement the crown in with strong dental cement and check your occlusion (bite) to make sure your crown is touching your opposing teeth correctly.

Bridges

To have a bridge prepared is the exact same procedure as the crown preparation however instead of the porcelain covering a single tooth or multiple teeth individually; the bridge is one single unit covering a number of teeth, for example if you were missing one tooth in the middle of your adjacent teeth the adjacent teeth would be cut back and the missing tooth would be replaced with a porcelain false tooth called a pontic, and the adjacent teeth which would be cut back and prepared for crowns  which would be connected to the pontic thus creating a bridge, it is one single piece joined together.  Bridges are only constructed if the adjacent teeth are heavily restored and/or require crowning otherwise an implant option would be suggested to replace the missing space, as we would not suggest preparing perfectly sound teeth.