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Repair Your Damaged Teeth with Porcelain Tooth Crowns

By Dr. Michael J. Wei, DDS – Manhattan New York City Cosmetic Dentist

Dental CrownsSignificantly damaged teeth call for strong tooth repairs. Your Manhattan restorative dentist can make porcelain tooth crowns (dental crowns) part of your smile makeover.

When you need to repair a large cavity, a hole in your tooth, or other major tooth damage, a customized porcelain tooth crown will be fitted and bonded in place to restore your smile. Dealing with a broken tooth is not only inconvenient, it’s painful and, depending on the location of the problem tooth, unsightly. Porcelain crowns are a reliable, natural-looking solution that blends in with your natural teeth. No one ever needs to know that you had a damaged tooth, let alone a dental crown repair.

Porcelain Crowns: Restorative and Smile Enhancing

Porcelain tooth crowns are as versatile a restorative dentistry solution as porcelain veneers are as a cosmetic dentistry solution. Weak, discolored, and broken teeth can be corrected in strength, most importantly, but also in shape, size, and color.

The most critical goal for your New York City dentist Dr. Wei is to make sure your smile is in good condition and fully functional. He also makes the appearance of your smile makeover an absolute priority. Dental crowns make it possible to have the best of both worlds so your oral health is not only complete, it’s flawless.

Problems Repaired by Porcelain Dental Crowns

Porcelain tooth crowns are a popular restoration for problem teeth. They are often used after root canal therapy to cover and protect the tooth in question. Smile makeovers often make use of porcelain crowns to repair teeth that, while not yet problematic, certainly have the potential to develop into an oral health nuisance.

Here are just some of the problems dental crowns are used to fix:

  • Chips
  • Cracks
  • Fractures
  • Misshapen teeth
  • Gaps
  • Severe discoloration
  • Weak teeth
  • Damage
  • Large areas of decay

Porcelain crowns are also used to support dental bridges, serving as anchors on either side of the bridge to secure it in place, replacing missing teeth and completing a series of several tooth repairs at one time.

Types of Dental Tooth Crowns

There are four types of tooth crowns available. Your Manhattan restorative dentist may prefer one kind of crown over another, or he may recommend a type of crown based on your unique oral health needs.

No matter what type of tooth crown you receive, all dental crowns are designed with the intention of repairing not only the appearance of your tooth but also solidifying the functionality and strength of your tooth.

Common dental crowns include:

  • All-porcelain crowns are made of porcelain or engineered dental ceramic. Also known as “all-ceramic crowns,” this type of restoration is popular among patients not only for its appearance and strength but its composition which is free of metal.
  • Porcelain-fused-to-metal crowns (PFM) have a porcelain exterior and metal interior, making the restoration incredibly strong and still maintaining a natural look. The metal component of a PFM crown may limit the patients who can tolerate such a solution.
  • Metal crowns are hard to miss since they are typically made entirely of metal, like gold. While these restorations are certainly durable, they are only appealing to a small number of dental patients.
  • Ceramic zirconia crowns are metal-free, strong, fracture-resistant, and customized to match the color of your natural teeth.

The Porcelain Crown Procedure

Putting a porcelain tooth crown in place typically takes two to three visits to your Midtown Manhattan restorative dentist. The tooth being treated must first be examined to ensure that a crown is the best repair. Then, the problem tooth will be prepped for the restoration. This may involve shaping the tooth by sanding and taking an impression of the tooth so the crown fits properly and snugly.

A temporary crown is always put in place in between the prep for your final restoration and the completion of the procedure. After all, you want to be able to eat normally and speak without worrying about an unsightly tooth grabbing all the attention. In the meantime, Dr. Wei’s dental lab will be hard at work developing your customized porcelain tooth crown.

When your crown is ready, it will be tested on your tooth for size, shape, and fit. Once comfortable, the crown will be bonded in place so it covers all the damage and completes your smile makeover.

The Versatile Porcelain Crown

Porcelain crowns have a long shelf life when cared for properly with at-home oral health care and professional preventive dental care including regular cleanings and exams. While used primarily for structural repairs, porcelain tooth crowns can also be used to replace old metal dental work or upgrade decades-old versions of similar repairs.

While they not only protect the teeth they cover, porcelain dental crowns also help prevent surrounding teeth from developing their own problems and damage. The goal of every porcelain crown restoration is to improve the strength of your teeth while making them look better.

Find out how your smile makeover can progress by getting porcelain tooth crowns from your Manhattan restorative dentist, Dr. Michael J. Wei.