Crowns

A crown ("cap") is a tooth-like covering placed over a carefully prepared preexisting tooth. Crowns serve many functions, such as to strengthen, restore or improve the appearance of your natural tooth. For example, a crown can support the tooth when there is no longer sufficient tooth structure left to place a filling. Crowns may also be used to protect the structure of a tooth that is fractured or broken, and can be attached to bridges or dentures.

Empress Crowns
pre-op post-op

Crowns are the treatment of choice:

  • To repair and rebuild badly broken down teeth
  • To improve the esthetics of misshapen teeth or worn teeth
  • To improve esthetics of badly stained teeth

Crowns are designed to look and feel like your natural teeth.

The following sequence of images illustrates the crown placement process:

Front View of tooth to be crowned. Observe cracks and decay.
Tooth has been prepared to accept the replacement tooth, made of porcelain (and sometimes a thin layer of metal for support). The tooth is prepared with a slight taper to help secure the crown.
The new crown is being put in place. Observe how the carefully prepared replacement will fit under the gum tissue to hide the junction between tooth and crown.
The crown is cemented into place using special dental adhesives. The objective of this procedure is for final crown to look as natural as possible and feel like an ordinary tooth.