Single dental crowns

Dental prosthetics take many forms. Restorative solutions for damaged or lost teeth are becoming more numerous, more durable and more aesthetic as materials and techniques improve.

Single-tooth crowns are the treatment solution for a wide range of conditions, restoring or even improving a patient’s smile.

Use

They are used in many cases, including:

• Extensive carious conditions that can no longer benefit from direct restoration with composite materials.

Often, patients present to the dentist at a time when caries has already affected an extensive area of the dental crown.

In this case, the patient experiences dentine sensitivity in the form of embarrassment or even lancination, exacerbated by consumption of cold or sweet foods and liquids.

The materials used in dentistry, glass ionomers, compomers or composites are not able to effectively replace defects and large losses of substance.

The devital tooth is brittle, brittle, like glass, so often, dental therapy solutions end up undermining the strength of the tooth and cracks or fractures of the tooth walls occur.

This is why extensive caries is treated by applying prosthetic crowns, the only ones that manage to maintain the integrity of the remaining tooth.

• Abrasions or fractures of teeth are losses of hard substance due to bruxism, the interposition of abrasive particles (occupational risk for those working in dusty environments) or accidents (the main cause of crown fractures).

In these cases, the loss of hard substance is significant, so the best way is to cover the teeth with individual crowns.

Dental crowns are prosthetic restorations that are used to restore the original appearance of the tooth or to protect it.

In order to apply an individual dental crown, the tooth will have to be polished, after which an impression will be made which will be sent to the dental technician’s laboratory, and once the definitive crown is ready it will be cemented onto the tooth, initially provisionally to observe its quality as well as its relationship with the surrounding tissues and later definitively.

There are several types of dental crowns, depending on the material from which they are made, but the most common of these are metal-ceramic crowns and zirconium dental crowns.

The quality of these materials is superior, and they produce well-fitting and aesthetic work for the patient.

Metal-ceramic crowns are, as the name suggests, made of metal coated with a layer of ceramic.

The framework is made of metal and the visible part of ceramic.

They are resistant to the forces developed during mastication, do not fracture easily and are less expensive than zirconia, making them accessible to large masses of patients.

Zirconium crowns have a translucent appearance, closely mimicking the natural tooth.

Zirconium is a biocompatible material with surrounding tissues, it has much greater strength than metal-ceramic crowns so it takes very high forces for them to fracture.

Whichever type of dental crown a patient chooses, it is important that they understand the advantages and disadvantages, know the quality/price ratio and how to care for them.