Dental Crown Procedure Pain and Process Involved
April 16th, 2012What is a Dental Crown?
Dental Crown is a cap, placed on the tooth to restore its size and shape and enhance its look. A Dental Crown fully covers the tooth from top to bottom.
Uses of Dental Crowns
Dental Crown has several uses. It can protect a decayed or weak tooth from cracking up and also hold the cracked tooth together. A damaged tooth can be restored to its normal shape. A large filling along with a dental crown can be used to fill the places, where there is very little tooth left. It can also protect and hold dental implants , dental bridge or a tooth after root canal treatment.
Materials used in making Dental Crowns
The materials usually used for preparing dental crowns include ceramic, metal, all resin and porcelain fused to metal. The metals used include gold and other alloys including palladium as well as base metals alloys like chromium and nickel. Metal crowns have the advantage that the tooth structure removal is minimum and they can withstand chewing and biting, does not break or chip and have less wear and tear. However, due to visible metallic color they are used for out of sight tooth.
The pocelain- metal fused crowns are good for front teeth as unlike metallic ones, they look just like normal tooth as the color can be matched to the adjacent teeth. The disadvantages are that they can chip and break off and may wear off the opposing tooth.The least expensive are the all- resin crowns but they last less as compared to others. The best color match to other teeth is provided by all-ceramic dental crowns. But, they are not as strong as the metal or fusion ones and best suited for front teeth. There are also temporary crowns available made of acrylic or steel which can be fitted at the dentist and used till permanent crown is made.
Life span
Depending on the wear and tear, dental hygiene and your eating habits, the dental crowns can last from five to fifteen years. They would last longer if you avoid habitual teeth grinding, chewing fingernails and using your teeth for other purposes.
Whether Special Care required
Though no special care is required, you should follow healthy oral hygiene such as brushing teeth twice daily and flossing. This would protect underlying tooth from getting infected and damaged. Also avoid biting on hard substances like nut shells to prevent fracture to the dental crown.
The pain factor
The cost depends on the type of dental crown and ranges from 800 dollars to 1500 dollars. The porcelain crowns are more expensive than the metal ones or the metal-porcelain fused ones. There is usually no insurance coverage for dental crowns..



