Why Do I Need A Crown?

Why is it sometimes necessary to put a crown on a tooth?

It’s necessary to put a crown on a tooth for several reasons. First of all, a crown is a restoration that we use to strengthen the tooth. A crown is needed when there’s insufficient tooth structure to fill the tooth, when the tooth is broken or fractured, when the tooth is worn down or when it’s partially destroyed by decay. The crowns that we use are metal free, all porcelain and blend in beautifully with the tooth structure, so I don’t have to remove as much tooth structure, so they’re nice and a conservative approach for building that tooth structure back. And because they’re metal free, there’s no concern about metal toxicities, and the crowns we place are the ultimate in strength, beauty and longevity.

The porcelains that we use today for our crowns are the strongest materials that we put in a patient’s mouth. They wear beautifully. They blend beautifully in with the adjacent teeth. Nobody can tell that they’re even crowns, so we’ve come a long way since the old metal or porcelain over metal crowns. The primary purpose of the crown is to save the tooth.

We preserve the healthy tooth structure and cover it and secure it and make it stronger so that we don’t put the tooth at risk of fracture by putting a larger filling in there, so it is a conservative approach to maintaining that tooth in place. Crowns are very long-lasting restorations and will serve the patients for many, many years.