A dental crown, often referred to as a cap, is a tooth-shaped restoration that fits over a damaged or decayed tooth. It offers strength and reinforcement to the tooth while also improving chewing function, comfort, and aesthetics. Unlike fillings, a dental crown covers the entire tooth and protects it from further damage and decay. A dental crown can be custom-designed to match the color and shape of your healthy teeth.
We are proud to offer custom dental crowns at our practice. We use the CEREC technology to design, fabricate, and cement your crown in a single appointment while you relax. The process eliminates the need for physical impressions, multiple appointments, and temporary restorations.
During the initial visit, our dentist will remove any remaining tooth decay and prepare the tooth for a dental crown by shaping it. Numbing medication is used to ensure your comfort, and a temporary crown is placed over the prepared tooth for protection.
Once the tooth is properly shaped, impressions are taken with either a putty-like material or a digital scanner, and the impressions are sent to a dental laboratory for your customized crown. Depending on the type of crown, base metals, noble metals, or porcelain can be used for construction. Metal crowns are the most durable and recommended for molars that undergo excessive bite pressure, while more visible teeth benefit from porcelain-fused-to-metal (PFM) crowns that combine the durability of metallic bases with the natural look of porcelain.
A ceramic crown is a beautiful option for your front teeth because of its translucent quality that resembles your natural tooth enamel. The ceramic can be bonded directly to the tooth, which transmits the underlying tooth color through the porcelain, or layered over a pre-built core made from zirconium dioxide (the same material that is used in dental implants).
In addition to crowns for existing teeth, we can place a dental implant and crown to replace missing teeth. Rather than a bridge, which requires modification of the adjacent teeth, a dental implant and crown allow you to restore one or more missing teeth with permanent support that looks and feels natural, and promotes the health of your jawbone through stimulating bone regeneration.
Many dental implant companies provide stock abutments that fit well into the implant but may not shape the gum tissue correctly, leading to poor aesthetics and causing discomfort when chewing or flossing. By creating a custom abutment and crown with our best Torrance, CA dentist we can ensure proper contours and a comfortable bite without the risks of using prefabricated abutments. Moreover, we can ensure the proper margin position to prevent peri-implant disease that stimulates soft tissue inflammation and leads to bone deterioration after osseointegration.