When your tooth is damaged or fragile, adding a dental crown can help you avoid painful fractures that alter your appearance and make chewing difficult. Crowns are one of the family dentistry services and treatments offered by your Rancho Cucamonga, CA, dentists, Dr. Peter Yanes and Dr. Rossina Escobar-Yanes.
What are crowns?
Crowns are designed to protect and strengthen damaged or weak teeth. They're made of durable materials that look like tooth enamel, including porcelain, porcelain-fused-to-metal, ceramic, and resin.
If you take a close look at a crown, you'll notice that it's hollow inside. The hollow design makes it possible to slip over a tooth easily, although the size of your tooth will need to be reduced slightly to accommodate the crown.
Your first crown visit to the Rancho Cucamonga dental office includes an impression of your mouth, made after the size of your tooth has been reduced. The impression makes it easy for dental laboratory technicians to make a crown that looks and feels natural.
You'll wear a temporary crown until your permanent crown is ready in about two weeks. After checking the fit of the permanent crown, your dentist will cement it onto your tooth.
A crown may be recommended if:
- Your tooth broke: Crowns replace lost tooth structure, which improves your chewing ability and your appearance. Adding a crown restores your tooth's normal height and width and covers the exposed edges of broken teeth. When the edges are exposed to the air, the tooth can be quite painful. Broken edges may also cut your mouth, lips, and tongue.
- Your tooth is cracked or fragile: Dental crowns also protect cracked or fragile teeth, preventing them from fracturing. Biting and chewing require tremendous pressure that can easily break weak teeth. Dental crowns shore up fragile teeth and absorb biting forces, keeping the tooth underneath safe.
- Your tooth is unattractive: Dental crowns also lengthen short teeth, improve the appearance of oddly shaped teeth, and hide discolorations and other flaws.
Do you need a dental crown or another family dentistry treatment? Call your dentists in Rancho Cucamonga, CA, Dr. Peter Yanes, and Dr. Rossina Escobar-Yanes, at (909) 466-4495 to schedule your appointment.