Highly Lifelike Dental Crowns and Bridges
When it comes to restoring a tooth, the most effective solution is the one that most closely mimics your healthy, natural tooth structure. In the case of a dental crown, that includes the highly precise design of your restoration as well as the biocompatible material (such as dental porcelain) used to create it. The same is true of modern dental bridges, which are prostheses designed to replace lost teeth using one or a pair of dental crowns for support. If you have a tooth that needs to be restored but doesn’t require a complete dental crown to do it, then we may recommend a partial crown (inlay or onlay) to offer optimal results while minimizing how much tooth structure is modified.
Restoring Your Smile with a Dental Crown
Dental crowns have been a part of dental care for centuries, with variations that extend even further throughout history. Today, they’re still one of the most popular solutions for restoring teeth that exhibit a variety of types of damage, from severe fractures and breaks to extreme wear, malformation, and more. In some cases, we can design and place a highly lifelike crown in a single day, thanks to our advanced CEREC (chairside economic restoration of esthetic ceramics) technology. CEREC takes highly precise digital images of your teeth and dental ridges to create an accurate, digital 3D model of your mouth. This model is used to digitally print your porcelain or zirconia crown on-site, allowing you to leave your appointment with your permanent dental crown intact.
Replacing Lost Teeth with Dental Bridges
When a tooth is lost, or is so compromised that it has to be extracted, dental crowns may be used to support a lifelike prosthetic tooth (or pontic) to replace it. The entire appliance is known as a fixed dental bridge, and consists of the lost tooth’s replacement bordered by crowns that are bonded to the healthy adjacent teeth. Once bonded in place, the pontic fills the gap in your smile and restores the balance in your bite, and the affixed dental crowns help ensure that it remains stable and secure as you bite and chew. In some cases, we may suggest placing a custom-designed dental crown on top of a dental implant (prosthetic tooth root) instead of a traditional dental bridge, which can help you avoid the need to attach dental crowns to neighboring teeth.
Learn how to restore your smile with a crown or bridge
If your tooth is damaged and needs a custom dental crown, or is lost and needs to be replaced with a dental bridge, then we can custom-design the ideal restoration for you. To learn more about restoring your smile with a custom dental crown or bridge, schedule a consultation by calling Dimples Family Dentistry in Norwalk, IA, today at (515) 256-1176.