Are you unhappy with the appearance of a tooth? Is it discolored, decayed, cracked, or chipped? Maybe the problem is more than just cosmetic, too. The tooth may be sensitive to temperature or pressure. It might even hurt so bad that you can’t chew with it. You might think the tooth is lost. But in many cases, a dental crown can solve all these complaints and give you back a beautiful, comfortable, and functional smile.
To learn whether a dental crown can restore your tooth, please call (314) 678-7876 (Downtown St. Louis) or (314) 678-7876 (Clayton) today for an appointment with St. Louis cosmetic dentist Dr. Chris Hill at our office downtown or in Clayton.
When Dental Crowns Are Used
Dental crowns are a common restorative dentistry treatment. They’re used in many common situations, including:
- Heavily decayed tooth
- Failure of a large filling
- Seriously cracked tooth
- Protecting a tooth after a root canal
- Cosmetic treatments when porcelain veneers are not enough
- Providing an attractive restoration on top of a dental implant
Sometimes, the damage to a tooth can be caused by the failure of a large filling. The failure might be structural, but most often decay develops around the filling. It’s too large to simply remove this decay and place a new filling.
Other times, a tooth may be damaged by trauma or excessive bite force, causing it to crack. Serious cracks may require a root canal to protect you from infection. After a root canal, a dental crown ensures the treated tooth remains functional and infection-free.
Restoring the appearance of your tooth is one of the vital functions of dental crowns. Dental crowns are so good at this function that they are sometimes used in purely cosmetic situations. When you are trying to improve the appearance of your smile by reshaping and/or concealing an unattractive tooth, porcelain veneers may not be strong enough. In that case, a porcelain dental crown works well.
And a dental crown can be the perfect functional and cosmetic topper to a dental implant, completing the beautiful, functional replacement tooth.
Porcelain Crowns
We are now able to offer full porcelain crowns for all our patients.
In the past, we often relied on metal crowns in situations where the dental crown was subjected to severe bite force. Although these were durable, they were highly visible and unattractive.
To try to resolve the problem, porcelain fused to metal (PFM) crowns were developed. The goal was to develop crowns that were as strong as metal but as attractive as porcelain. However, the porcelain often flaked away from the metal, so the crowns were actually as fragile as porcelain and as unattractive as metal.
But now two major advances allow us to use all porcelain crowns in every situation. First, the development of neuromuscular dentistry allows us to control the bite force that any tooth might be subjected to, so we can avoid damaging bite force. Second, material science has developed porcelain that is as strong as or stronger than metals–even titanium!
Now everyone can enjoy a beautiful smile without worrying that their crowns are vulnerable to bite forces.
If you would like to learn more about the benefits of all porcelain crowns in St. Louis, please call (314) 678-7876 (Downtown St. Louis) or (314) 678-7876 (Clayton) today for an appointment with Dr. Chris Hall at City Smiles in downtown or Clayton.
