In the past, dental crowns have been made of a gold alloy. This is very durable and provides a strong chewing surface. But a gold crown stands out among its natural, white neighbors and does not give an aesthetically pleasing appearance. Cosmetic dentistry has advanced in huge strides over recent years, so that now the material of choice for a crown is dental porcelain.
What is dental porcelain?
It’s a glass-like ceramic material that comes in many shades of white. A qualified cosmetic dentist can give you a porcelain crown that nobody will ever identify as a crown. She will match the exact shade of porcelain to your natural enamel, and will even have the crown made of several subtly different shades of porcelain, to mimic the subtle variations in natural tooth enamel.
Advantages of porcelain
· It is translucent like natural tooth enamel. Light can travel through it, but is also reflected back to the viewer from the dental cement holding the crown to the tooth. Similarly, light travels through enamel and is reflected back from the dentin layer beneath. So in both cases, the result is a characteristic white sheen.
· It is strong and long-lasting and gives a good chewing surface
· It is stain-resistant like glass. The pigmented substances we eat and drink, like cola drinks, blackberries and red wine, do not affect its color as they do our enamel color. Conversely, it is not affected by any tooth whitening procedure. It retains its original shade of white.
Two types of porcelain crown
A porcelain crown can be:
1. All-porcelain, with porcelain on the outside and a porcelain lining; or
2. Porcelain-fused-to-metal, with porcelain on the outside and a metal lining.
All-porcelain crowns have the most gleaming beauty. The metal lining in the other type interferes slightly with the way light is reflected from the crown, reducing its gleam to some extent. That metal lining will also start to show as a dark streak at the gum line, as we age and our gums begin receding a bit
Crowns as part of neuromuscular dentistry
The jaw joints are in front of the ears and connect the lower and upper teeth. They can be misaligned, a condition known as Temporomandibular Joint Disorder (TMD, which has many painful symptoms.
One potential cause of TMD is poorly-done reconstructive dentistry. If you have any older crowns which were not sized or placed quite right, they can interfere with your bite, the way your upper and lower teeth come together. Dr. Alhadef is an LVI-trained neuromuscular dentist and will recognize that condition immediately. All his cosmetic dentistry work is done with the patient’s neuromuscular health in mind.
