Crowns & Fixed Bridges

Crowns

A crown is a permanent restoration that fits over a natural tooth that is either decayed, damaged or cracked. Crowns are made of a variety of different materials such as porcelain, gold, or a combination of these materials. Porcelain crowns generally have the most natural appearance, and gold crowns are the most durable.

In order to fabricate a crown it is necessary to shape the tooth to create an ideal fit for the crown. Then an impression is made of your mouth in order to create a custom crown made in a professional dental laboratory.

Once the procedure is completed, proper dental hygiene, including daily brushing and flossing, is required to maintain healthy, bacteria-free teeth, gums and crowns. This helps in the prevention of gum disease. Given proper care, your crowns can last many years.

This patient had a severely worn dentition from years of clenching and grinding. To restore him to function, we placed porcelain crowns on the 6 anterior maxillary teeth. He also whitened his teeth.

This patient had many failing porcelain fused to metal crowns and old fillings. We replaced these with natural looking all porcelain crowns to restore her to dental health and make her confident to smile again.

This patient broke a tooth that originally had a silver amalgam filling. Due to the extensive damage to the tooth, we restored it with a crown.

This patient broke her front tooth when she was 8. She had it fixed several times since then but was unhappy with the result. We decided to make a porcelain crown to correct the color and protect the tooth.

Bridges

A bridge is a dental device that fills a space that a tooth previously occupied. The bridge is generally cemented to the natural teeth adjacent to the space left by a missing tooth. The process in fabricating a bridge is similar to that of a crown.

A bridge may be necessary to prevent shifting of the teeth that can lead to bite problems and/or jaw problems and resultant periodontal disease. Bridges protect the integrity of existing teeth and help maintain a healthy mouth.