Choosing The Right Material For Your Dental Crown

Dental crowns make it possible to preserve a tooth that is not in good enough shape to stand on its own. This can mean restoring a tooth after a root canal, or protecting a tooth that has been damaged in an injury. Crowns are also used in prosthetic dentistry, as a means of holding your dental bridge in place. Different material types can be used to construct crowns. The right dental crown for you will depend on different variables, such as which tooth is being covered, and how much force is typically placed on it when you bite and chew food.

Appearance Versus Durability

The easy way to think about material types for crowns is to consider their relative durability, and their appearance. A ceramic-made crown will look the most like a natural tooth, but your dentist may opt for a stronger material type if the crown is in a less visible area, or if the durability of the crown is a concern. A crown on a back tooth will be harder to see, and placed under more pressure. A gold crown may be used for a back tooth, or a porcelain-fused-to-metal crown, which places porcelain over the metal to combine strength and esthetics.

Early Cavity Intervention Can Make A Dental Crown Unnecessary

The function of a dental crown in cavity treatment is to restore a tooth that has lost too much material to be adequately repaired with a filling. Ideally, you will avoid tooth decay altogether. However, if a cavity does manage to form on a tooth, seeking treatment in time can give your dentist the opportunity to fix it with a tooth filling, before the infection spreads to too much of the tooth.