A crown goes on top of a king's head and a cap is worn by a baseball player. Both terms are used commonly but a crown is the more professional dental term. A natural dental crown is made with white enamel covering it and yellower dentin supporting the enamel underneath. As your enamel wears and thins you can see more and more of the darker dentin underneath and this is one reason that teeth become yellower as we age. When the natural crown is damaged or weakened a new crown can be constructed by our dentist. There are many reasons that a natural crown must be replaced:

          During your first visit the natural tooth is prepared by reducing it's size and an impression is made using a very precise impression material, ours is imported from Germany. The impression is sent to a dental laboratory where an accurate model of you is constructed. The dental technician then creates an metal cover for the tooth and casts it in a gold alloy. A ceramist then bakes porcelain onto the metal cover so that the porcelain resembles a natural tooth. The patient then returns to the dental office and the crown is adjusted and cemented to the tooth. Most patients choose a natural looking porcelain fused to gold crown, however, they can be made completely out of a gold alloy or totally of porcelain.

          Crowns cover most of the exposed portion of your tooth and decay does not effect a crown since it's is made of metal and/or porcelain. However, where the natural tooth meets the crown can become decayed. This area is called the margin. Crowns normally last 5 to 10 years or more but often last much longer. They are part of providing excellent dentistry to our patients.