Porcelain Crowns
Portland, OR

You may have heard crowns called dental caps - that's because the crowns cap (or cover) the top of your tooth all the way down to the gumline. Crowns have been used for centuries as a way to cover damaged teeth and protect them. In the past, we made crowns from precious metals like silver and gold. In fact, precious metal crowns were seen as a status symbol for decades. Now, however, crowns are usually porcelain over a metal cap, so that the crown looks like your original teeth, and so your tooth is protected. The porcelain over metal cap technique makes crowns strong, and it takes a great deal of force to make them break or crack.

We use crowns for a lot of different reasons. We sometimes use a crown to make a tooth stronger if a large dental filling is in place in the tooth. Forty or fifty years ago, practitioners used to completely drill out a tooth to get rid of the cavity, which left the tooth weak and less able to fight infection, or a blow to the face. Now we know that we need to drill the hole in a cavity as small as possible to keep the tooth strong and healthy. This helps to preserve the tooth. A lot of adults have fillings from 40 or 50 years ago, and over time, spaces between the tooth and the filling can grow and expand. This could cause tooth loss. A crown placed over the tooth with a large filling in it protects the tooth.

We might also use crowns to cover teeth that were broken, chipped, split or fractured. Sometimes, teeth can crack because of a blow to the face, and other times, an adult will bite down on a pretzel or a peanut, and break a tooth. Crowns can cover the remaining parts of the tooth to protect it.

In order to fix your tooth, we will first place a temporary crown on your damaged tooth. Before we place the temporary crown, we make a mold of your cracked, chipped or broken tooth. We then make a crown from the mold of your tooth, so that it fits your mouth exactly. When your crown is ready, we need to sand your tooth down (just a little) and cement your new crown in over your tooth. Placing a crown is relatively easy and pain free.