Dental Crowns and Bridges

A crown is a kind of dental restoration which is cemented over a tooth, covering your tooth for restoring its size, shape, strength, and improving its appearance. Crown is a tooth-shaped cap fully encased over the total visible tooth portion lying at and above your gum line.

Need for a Dental Crown

  • To restore your tooth to its original shape
  • To improve aesthetic appearance of your tooth
  • To bind together parts of a cracked tooth
  • To guard and protect loose gum or decayed tooth from breaking
  • To fill the decayed tooth enamel
  • To cover dental implant
  • To hold dental bridge in place
  • To cover and restore a discoloured or misshaped teeth
  • Post root canal treatment, a crown is needed for strengthening the tooth

Materials Used for Making Crowns:

Types of Crown :

Type Advantages Disadvantages
Full ceramic
  • Strongest type of esthetic crown.
  • Doesn’t fracture or chip as easily as alternative esthetic type crown.
  • Usually most economical esthetic crowns.
  • Metal may be visible if tissue shrinks.
  • Metal may be visible if tissue is thin.
  • Metal may affect color of porcelain.
  • Possible bluish tint of gum if gum tissue is thin and metal shows through.
Metal Crown with Porcelain Butt Joint
  • Esthetic
  • No metal shows from front
  • Strong
  • Metal usually visible from inside view only.
  • Underlying metal may affect color of porcelain.
  • Porcelain margin more susceptible to chipping than metal.
  • More costly to make.
Porcelain or Cast Glass
  • Most esthetic throughout crown life.
  • No metal shows.
  • Not as strong as ceramco metal crown.
  • Margin may be more susceptible to chipping.
  • More costly to make.
Full Metal
  • Strong crown.
  • Very Economical.
  • Esthetically dissatisfactory