Crowns

These are also known as 'caps' and are normally only made when teeth are so heavily damaged that filling is no longer a reliable prospect. In order to restore normal function and/or aesthetics the teeth will be prepared, removing all old filling material and making sure that there is no underlying tooth decay. A badly broken tooth with a root filling may need a carbon fibre post fitted into the root canal to give better support to the crown. The tooth is then built up with a composite filling material providing us with an incredibly strong basis onto which we can safely make the crown. We will then take an impression of your teeth so that the technician in the laboratory can make the crown. As it normally takes the laboratory two weeks to get the finished crown back to us, we make temporary crowns to protect the teeth for that period.

This case could have been in the tooth whitening section, the gum disease section or here in the crown and bridge section.	We first spent a few appointments cleaning the teeth and showing the patient how he can look after his teeth better. Then we crowned eight upper teeth and whitened the remaining teeth

It is advisable not to eat hard or sticky food during the fortnight you have temporary crowns as they are slightly fragile and are cemented on with a relatively soft cement. This enables us to remove the temporary crowns easily when the real crowns are ready. Also be careful during those two weeks with foods that contain strong stains or pigments like curry as they with stain the temporary crown.

For your front teeth, where the appearance is of the highest priority, we now recommend all porcelain crowns, like Procera or IPS E-MAX crowns which have superior aesthetics and excellent strength. Further towards the back of the mouth the bonded porcelain crown are often the crown of choice as they are stronger yet cheaper compared to the all ceramic crowns.