When Is a Dental Crown Needed?

What are dental crowns?

Whether you've lost a tooth, want to change the way an unattractive tooth looks or would like to repair or restore a damaged tooth, dental crowns can renew your smile. Crowns look just like the visible parts of your teeth. If you examine a crown carefully, you'll notice that it's hollow inside. The hollow design allows the restoration to slip over your tooth comfortably. Before you receive a crown, your dentist reduces the size of your tooth slightly to allow a good fit for the restoration.

Crowns are cemented onto your teeth and don't change the way your tooth feels. Made of porcelain, porcelain-fused-to-metal, ceramic, or resin, crowns last 10 to 15 years or longer.

How Lincoln dental crowns help your smile

Since dental crowns cover your teeth on all four sides, they can conceal a variety of flaws that affect teeth. If you've always felt a little self-conscious about a discolored tooth, adding a crown that matches the shade of surrounding teeth will help it blend in. Do you have a few teeth that look a little unusual? Crowns are often used to improve the shape of twisted or crooked teeth. They're also a good choice if you have a tooth that's naturally short or that has become short due to wear and tear.

Crowns stabilize and protect fragile teeth, preventing them from breaking. They're recommended if you have a weak, brittle, or cracked tooth, but are also used to strengthen teeth that are a little weak due to a large filling or root canal therapy. Crowns stabilize fragile teeth and absorb strong biting forces that could damage them.

When a tooth breaks, a crown restores its normal appearance, in addition to restoring your biting ability. In fact, your new tooth will look just like it did before it broke.

Dental crowns can also replace missing teeth when they're used in bridges or with dental implants. Bridges restore one or two lost teeth with artificial teeth called pontics. Attaching crowns to either side of the pontics anchors the bridge, providing stability.

Crowns are also connected to dental implants to create brand new teeth. Dental implants are small posts that are placed in your jawbone during minor oral surgery in Lincoln. The posts are made of a biocompatible metal that bonds to your jawbone, which ensures that your new roots are firmly attached to the bone.

Upgrade your smile with dental crowns! Call your Lincoln, NE, dentists at Blome Family Dentistry, Drs. Sara Wubbles and Greg Blome, at (402) 483-7000 to schedule your appointment.