There are myriad types of crowns; imperial crowns, royal crowns, ancient crowns, jewelry crowns…….etc. but, what about dental crowns?
You don’t have to be a king nor a queen to put a dental crown.
Your natural crown is the upper part of your tooth appearing in the oral cavity which is very important in cutting and chewing food. It is covered by a very hard lustrous material called enamel, can you believe that usually a dentist uses a special bur made of diamond (the hardest element on earth) to cut enamel?
Your dentist will decide to put an artificial crown on your tooth to protect them in many situations.
For example, if you have badly decayed teeth or large fillings, also, in case of extremely damaged traumatized teeth or after a root canal treatment.
Regarding cosmetic dentistry, nowadays porcelain crowns show great effectiveness in restoring the natural crown esthetically and functionally. These can restore malposed, badly decayed, missed, as well as fractured anterior and posterior teeth.
There are many different types of crowns, including; full metallic crowns, full acrylic resin crowns, porcelain fused to metal crowns, and all ceramic crowns. Each type of these crowns has its indications and contra-indications, as well as merits and demerits, clinically speaking, always aim to full coverage crowns; they significantly offer better oral hygiene, less fractures, and best esthetics.
Metals used in the fabrication of crowns can be gold and palladium (precious alloys), or nickel and chromium (base metal alloys). Despite the metallic color of metal crowns, they are benefited by their strength, low costs, and minimal tooth preparations. Unfortunately, they can’t be used in the treatment of anterior teeth.
In order to overcome the metallic color, your dentist might recommend porcelain fused to metal crowns, but on long-term, the metal underlying the porcelain will show a black hue of color or introduces a dark line just near the margin of your gingiva. Additionally, porcelain anterior coverage usually separates from the metal.
Nowadays, full ceramic crowns are clinically considered to be the most effective type of crowns used; they can restore natural teeth in function and in appearance as well. These types of crowns are also known as Procera or Zirkon crowns.
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