PROCEDURES
General Treatments: Crowns
Crowns (caps) protect and keep badly decayed or fractured teeth.
The Problem:
- Badly decayed teeth
- Fractured teeth
- Need to protect and strengthen teeth
The Solution:
First, decay is removed and cleaned from the tooth. Then a filling called a build up is bonded in to replace a specific amount of tooth that was missing due to the decay. Dr. Miller is one of the very few dentists using a CEREC machine to fabricate a porclain crown immediately following preparation of the tooth. This means no terrible gagging impression, flimsy uncomfortable temporary, or return visit. You receive your permanent porcelain crown bonded and sealed in place in one visit.
Advantages:
Crowns are incredibly strong due to the fact that they are a single unit. This protects and strengthens the remaining tooth structure. In the hands of a skilled dentist, a crown will fit almost perfectly onto the prepared surface of the tooth, reducing the size of the seam between the crown and the tooth. This helps keep decay from eventually occurring under the crown.
Crowns should be placed before the tooth fractures due to decay or large fillings. This can often help prevent the future expense of root canal therapy. It can also prevent the possibility that a fractured tooth may need to be removed, requiring the expense of a bridge or implant to replace the missing tooth.
Disadvantages:
Crowns are excellent restorations and have few disadvantages. They are highly durable, but they will eventually need to be re-cemented or replaced due to normal wear.
Ocassionally, a tooth may still need root canal therapy after being crowned. However, this indicates that the interior of the tooth was already sick (infected) and would have eventually needed root canal therapy anyway.
