What Is the Difference Between A Dental Cap and a Crown?

Dental crowns are tooth caps that help cover damaged teeth. Crowns are helpful to encase and restore the shape of your teeth when fillings are insufficient to solve the problem. There is no discrepancy between a dental crown and a dental cap because the terms are used interchangeably.

Different materials like metals, porcelain, resin, and ceramic help make a tooth crown that typically doesn’t require special attention over time other than regular excellent dental hygiene.

Dental Crowns Explained

Your teeth sustain damage over time due to reasons such as tooth decay, injuries, and plain overuse. As a result, they can lose their shape and size. Dental crowns resemble tooth-shaped caps that encase the entire tooth like a snug hat. The cap restores the appearance, strength, shape, and size of the tooth.

Dental crowns are bonded into place to cover the entire visible portion.

Why Might You Need a Dental Crown?

You might need a dental crown for various reasons. For example, you might want to protect a weak tooth from tooth decay breaking apart or keep it together if parts of it are cracking. You can restore a broken tooth or one severely worn with dental crowns. If you have a tooth with extensive filling but without sufficient structure, you can cover and support the tooth with tooth caps. Dental crowns are also helpful to conceal misshapen or severely discoloured teeth besides covering a tooth that has recently undergone root canals. Finally, dental crowns can support dental bridges and implants if you have tooth loss.

What Is the Dental Crown Procedure?

If you need dental crowns for the reasons described above, you must visit dental crown in Markham, ON, to receive the restoration, scheduling two appointments with the dentist.

During your first visit, the tooth receiving the crown is examined by the dentist before preparing it. X-rays of the tooth and bone around are taken during the examination. The dentist might have to perform root canal treatment prior to your dental crown procedure if you have tooth decay, injury to the dental pulp or the risk of infections.

The preparation for dental crowns is uncomfortable, but the dentist provides local anesthesia to ensure your comfort. The tooth receiving the crown undergoes filing from the tops and sides to make space for the crown. How much tooth structure removal is essential depends on your chosen crown. If you have all metal crowns which are thinner, they don’t require extensive tooth structure removal, than porcelain fused to metal crowns requires extra tooth structure removal.

After reshaping the tooth, your dentist makes impressions of it besides the teeth above and below to ensure the crown will not affect your bite. The impressions are for the dental laboratory to fabricate your restoration. Dental laboratories require two to three weeks to create your customized dental restoration. Meanwhile, you receive a temporary crown over the prepared for protection.

You revisit the dentist after three weeks when the dental lab returns your customized crown. The dentist first removes the temporary crown and checks the colour and fit of the permanent restoration. If everything is acceptable, the new crown is permanently bonded over the prepared tooth using special dental cement.

The lifespan of Dental Crowns

Dental crowns are durable and last between five and 15 years. However, the life of a dental crown depends on the wear and tear it is subjected to and how well you follow dental hygiene practices and mouth-related habits.

Mouth-related habits can include:

• Use your teeth to open packages.
• Biting nails.
• Chewing ice and grinding or clenching your teeth.

Therefore you must refrain from some habits and request the dentist to provide custom-fitted night guards if you are affected by bruxism.

Do Dental Crowns Need Special Attention?

A crowned tooth doesn’t require special attention. However, you must remember the underlying tooth needs protection from tooth decay and gum disease. Therefore following excellent dental hygiene practices becomes imperative. For example, brushing your teeth twice a day and flossing them at least once near the crown area where your tooth meets your gums. If you have porcelain crowns, you help yourself by refraining from biting on hard surfaces to prevent damaging the crown.

New Delhi Dental provides excellent dental crowns in Markham to restore your damaged tooth or one missing from your mouth. If you require dental crowns, please do not hesitate to contact this practice for the restorations.