Five Facts About Dental Crowns

Dental crowns have restored millions of smiles over the past several decades. They continue as treatments preferable to tooth extraction dental crownsand as the finishing touch on today's premiere tooth replacement, the dental implant. Your Delray Beach, FL dentist, Dr. Henry Rodriguez-Martin, places beautiful dental crowns at Brilliant Smiles Dental and wants you fully informed on how they work. Read five important facts about the role dental crowns play in restorative dentistry.

Fact #1 Dental crowns protect and support failing teeth above the gum line. Whether crafted from a porcelain-fused-to-metal alloy (PFM) or all-porcelain, your dental crown is a tooth-shaped restoration that preserves a heavily decayed, injured or abscessed tooth.

Fact # 2 Dental crowns take a few visits to place. That's usually the case at Brilliant Smile Dental in Delray Beach where your dentist will examine your tooth and take digital X-rays to see how viable it truly is. Then, he begins the treatment by numbing the tooth and removing any old fillings and the decayed or cracked portions above the gum line. Dr. Rodriguez-Martin shapes the tooth and takes an oral impression so the dental lab can custom-make the crown. At the final visit, the dentist removes the temporary crown and bonds the new restoration in place.

Fact #3 Dental crowns last a long time--10 to 15 years, say researchers at the Cleveland Clinic. But, as a diligent patient, you must brush twice a day and floss around your crown daily according to American Dental Association (ADA) guidelines. Also, be gentle with all your teeth, not just the ones with fillings, crowns or veneers. That means no chewing ice cubes or pencil tops or biting open beer bottles. Porcelain crowns can chip, fracture or even come off if they are treated too roughly or if you routinely grind your teeth. If grinding, or bruxism, is a problem for you, Dr. Rodriguez-Martin may advise you wear a customized mouth guard at night to protect those restorations.

Fact #4 Crowns support fixed bridgework. If you are missing one, two or even more teeth in a row, your dentist in Delray Beach may span the smile gap with bridgework that has artificial teeth, or pontics, affixed to neighboring natural teeth with dental crowns. Crowns also top dental implants which are anchored to the jawbone for extremely stable replacement of missing teeth.

Fact #5 If possible, your dentist would rather refurbish a tooth with a crown than extract that ailing or injured tooth. That's because smile gaps create of myriad of problems such as gum and jawbone recession, compromised smile aesthetics and poor oral function.

Do you need a crown?

If you do, rest assured that you are doing something good for your smile. For a restorative dentistry consultation with Dr. Rodrigues-Martin, contact Brilliant Smiles Dental to speak to a team member. Call today: (561) 272-2131.

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