Dental Crowns
A dental crown is sometimes termed a "cap" or a "jacket." A full dental crown covers the entire tooth and will restore a broken, heavily filled or cracked tooth to its original size, shape and tooth color. 
A dental crown may be recommended after root canal therapy has been completed, as the tooth tends to become brittle and is more apt to fracture. A dental crown can strengthen and protect the remaining tooth structure and improve the appearance of the tooth. With new advances, we now have the ability to create dental crowns without metal. Old technology required that a dental crown be done in 2 different visits to the dental office- one visit to trim and "prepare" the tooth, and a second visit to place the final dental crown which was made at a dental laboratory. Drs. Hemingway and Reber have (and teach other dentists about) CEREC one-visit porcelain dental crowns and partial dental crowns which can make restored teeth 110% as strong as non-filled virgin teeth..
This enables Dr Hemingway and Dr. Reber to fabricate most dental crowns in just a SINGLE office visit, while providing a superior restoration to what was previously possible with TWO office visits.
In addition, CEREC technology allows a much more conservative restoration, preserving much more of your original tooth. For this reason, Drs. Hemingway and Reber will often elect to do a "partial porcelain dental crown" where previously a full dental crown might have had to be done. This partial dental crown will create a single piece of porcelain that will be bonded in your tooth much like a jigsaw puzzle piece, replacing only the broken or damaged part of the tooth while leaving the healthy part of the tooth intact. Our patients love this advanced restoration!
See Bekki's Transformation!
Dental Crowns are used for a variety of reasons:
- To strengthen a damaged tooth (from decay or previous old restorations)
- To protect a tooth that has had a root canal treatment
- For purely esthetic reasons
New Dental Crown Technology
- The Old Technology for crowns showed a dark line at the gum line usually from the metal sub-structure supporting the porcelain.
- The New Technology for crowns show great advancements in dental materials requiring no metal sub-structure therefore giving natural translucency to the entire tooth and no unattractive gray lines at the gums.
Old Technology
New Technology
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