What are Dental Crowns?
Dental crowns also know as caps or tooth crowns are an artificial restoration of the top of a tooth that has been lost or compromised due to dental decay severe grinding or other trauma. The crown or cap is placed on top of the entire tooth surrounding it on all sides. The dental crown is manufactured from a dental ceramic chosen to blend in with the existing tooth colour, or traditionally from gold or other base metal or cheaper allow. Your dentist will need to grind away a significant portion of the existing tooth to create a stable platform and post to cement the crown securely in place.
Why do you need a Dental Crowns?
Dental crowns are typically needed when a filling cannot be placed in the tooth. Once a filling has two or more sides and the tooth is drilled away over time to create bigger fillings, the tooth's structure will be compromised and the filling simply cannot be supported. Dental crowns can also be used purely cosmetically. Ceramic teeth can be fashioned exactly to be as aesthetically pleasing as possible. However, much better cosmetic alternatives exist which don't involve the complete replacement of the outer tooth, such as veneers.
How is a dental Crown fitted?
Dental crowns are typically fitted in severe cases of dental decay when the tooth can no longer be filled. It involved grinding down the tooth to created a flat platform, usually with a post or rod which is added to help strengthen the dental crown. Your dentists will take molds or digital scans of the tooth, and a lab will typically fashion an artificial crown which will then be fitted. A temporary crown will be placed over the tooth, until a new appointment can be made for the crown, which will then be fitted. If the crown has been made accurately fitting can be very simple. the crown is simply cemented into place. Otherwise, adjustments will typically need to be made to ensure the bite is as perfect as can be, and the crown fits in place as best as can be expected.
Laser Crown technology
Some dentists are using a new digital technology to automatically create an instant crown. Digital 3D pictures of the tooth are taken, and a crown is milled to accurately cut a perfect crown in minutes. Using computer aided design has several advantages. A patient can walk out of the dental office in one sitting with a perfectly fitted and bonded crown without having to wait for a lab to custom create a crown. Their is no temporary crown, no lab wait, no lab technician to pay, and just one visit to your dentist. Most dentists use the Cerec computer crown technology. The major disadvantage of the Cerec technology is that they cannot be used on front teeth where an exact colour gradient and match with the existing teeth is best left to a professional lab. The machine mills crowns from a block of ceramic loaded into the machine. Although this block is colour graded it is not custom tailored. The laser crows will be perfectly acceptable on the back teeth, where subtle colour variations are impossible to detect. Most of the time, patients will have crowns on the teeth in the back of the mouth anyway.
Crown Materials
Dental crowns have been made with a variety of different materials over the years. Traditionally gold has been the material of choice. Many dentists still prefer to use gold because it is extremely long lasting. Gold is a soft metal and does not push hard against the existing tooth structure which can then be cracked and compromised over time. Gold can also be used for full length crown where the tooth really has to be taken back very far due to severed dental decay.
Many consumers do not like a mouth full of gold and opt instead for ceramic materials that look more natural. Ceramic crowns can be fused to metal posts. Over time when a porcelain crown is fused to a metal crown, a dark line appear all the way around the gumline as the the metal leeches.
One of the best material is Zirconia - which is a special extra tough ceramic material which can made to be very thin due to its inherent strength. Zirconia crowns can bonded onto the teeth, and not just cemented with conventional dental cement. Since no metal is used they won't show an ugly line.
Problems with Crowns
In general the major problems with crown occur due to biocompatible issued with the dental materials or the dental sealants or filer used. Some individuals are very sensitive to electrical current created from the use of one or more crowns. When any metals are placed in your mouth patients can be prone to a variety of different electro-chemical effects. All you need to make a battery is two metals and an electrolyte to conduct the electricity. Saliva provides the electrolyte and all the different metals - implants, gold crowns, titanium, silver fillings etc. - provide the charge. While most people will not be aware of these metal ions transferring and causing a minute electric current, others are more deeply affected by them and suffer from increased sensitivity, inflammation, pain an nerve shocks, ulcers and inflammation. Zirconia crowns tend to be much better tolerated by sensitive individuals.
Other common complaints from crown are tooth sensitivity. Since much of the original tooth has been destroyed greater sensitivity - particularly to temperature extremes is very common. Most of the time bite issues can be resolved by refitting the crown.
Crowns can and often do fall out. Re-cementing the crown is quick and easy to do.
Average Prices of Crowns
The fee for a dental cap - also know as a dental crown varies according to three
main factors, the materials used in the crown, the geographical location of the dentist, and the speciality of the dentist.
Crowns are made from all sorts of different material. For example,
1. Gold alloy crowns are the most expensive, particularly as the price of gold has risen over the past few years quite dramatically. This is the longest lasting, but many people don't like to see gold in their teeth and prefer the more natural porcelain. A full cast - the most expensive - High noble Bold Crown will cost an average of $1350.
2. Porcelain fused to gold alloy (Different alloys are available; the more precious metal, the higher the dentist's lab fee) You can expect to pay around an average of $912 for
a porcelain crown fused to gold alloy.
3. Porcelain fused to non-precious metal You can expect to pay around an average of $850 for a porcelain crown fused to non-precious metal. The cost to the dentist and the lab is nearly the same because it takes the same time no matter what the metal.
4. All porcelain - cheaper but easier to break. You can expect to pay around an average of $800 for all porcelain crown.
5. Composite resin. Some dentists use computer aided graphics to generate the caps and have them made right there and then in the office. The equipment is expensive, and the cost has to be passed on.
These average fees may vary considerably according to the location of the dentist. For example dentists in New York, San Francisco and LA always charge considerably more because of the higher cost of living in these areas.
A specialist dentist may also charge more for the work. As in everything you get what you pay for. A dental specialist will often produce work which is of a much higher quality than a generalist.
