If it has been years since you last needed to have a dental crown placed, or if you have never had one at all, you might have some reservations or concerns about needing one. For many years restorative dentistry, like crowns, meant noticeable metal additions to one’s smile. Fortunately modern dentistry provides more seamless alternatives in the form of porcelain crowns that can help improve both the functionality and the appearance of your smile! So if you feel you need restorative treatment, don’t delay due to concern about how it will affect the esthetics of your smile. Instead, talk to your dentist about the many benefits of dental crowns.
When Is a Crown the Restorative Answer?
Dental crowns can actually be used in a number of ways, from protecting a tooth after a deep cavity to completing a smile after tooth loss. Many people don’t yet realize just how many ways modern dental crowns can help improve a smile, functionally and cosmetically.
For instance, crowns can be used to:
- Protect teeth damaged by decay, infection, or even wear caused by chewing or subconscious teeth grinding.
- By sealing fragile teeth from bacteria and food particles, crowns can often prevent infections from developing.
- After root canal treatment, a crown can be used to prevent reinfection, as well as to improve the look and comfort of the smile.
- Since porcelain crowns are not as conductive as metal, many patients find them more comfortable, as well as more esthetically pleasing.
- Crowns can be used as a source of prosthetic dentistry, as well, either to help cope with the loss of a single tooth, or several.
- Crowns can be affixed to existing teeth to anchor dental bridges, while full crowns can serve as replacement teeth, themselves.
- Some patients opt to use crowns as part of a dental implant, as well, for added stability and the beauty that comes with a natural-looking porcelain crown.
