If you have a filling on the front of one of your teeth, and it is becoming loosened due to aging, your dentist may recommend you have a dental crown placed over this tooth to repair the damage in an aesthetically pleasing way. White fillings work well temporarily, but when they disintegrate and become stained from regular food and drink consumption, placing a crown in its place is a better choice in making your tooth look like new. Here is a summary of what will happen when your dentist replaces a filling with a crown.

What Is A Crown?

A crown is a restorative cap that fits over the entire surface of your existing tooth up to and including a portion of underneath your gum line. Your old tooth is still present, but it is enclosed by this ceramic tooth and is kept intact to be used as an anchor for the crown to be adhered to. When you have a crown, the tooth underneath will still be rooted.

How Is The Existing Tooth Prepared?

When you go to the dentist (like those at Wigwam Dental Care) to be fitted for a crown, the first job to be done is preparing your existing tooth to be enclosed. You will be given anesthesia to numb the area the dentist will be working on. Since your filling is falling off, it will be removed completely so the cement used to adhere the crown will not have an obstruction in the way. If there is a portion of the tooth missing under the filling, the dentist will need to buildup this area with a filler so the crown will have enough surface to grab onto when it is placed. The dentist will use a drill to remove any of the old filling and then will use a compound to add substance to your existing tooth. The dentist will take an impression of the tooth so a temporary crown can be fitted.

How Is The Crown Prepared?

Your dentist will take photographs of your existing teeth so a laboratory can match your new crown with the same coloring. Your dentist will use the impressions made of your existing tooth to make a temporary crown from resin or acrylic. This may not have a perfect match in color, but will be used to hide the anchoring tooth as you new crown is constructed. It will need to be made in a laboratory, so it can take a week or two to be completed. In the interim, the resin or acrylic crown is cemented to your existing tooth using temporary cement. When your new crown is completed, you will go back to the dentist to remove the temporary crown and have the real crown cemented in its place with permanent cement.

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