Crowns & Bridges

Dental crowns and bridges have been among the most widely used devices for cosmetically addressing broken, decayed, damaged and missing teeth for many years.

Crowns, also known sometimes as caps, are generally used to strengthen and repair broken, decayed or damaged teeth, while bridges are often an effective and economical means for treating patients with missing teeth.

Crowns can be made of a variety of materials, with new materials being continually introduced as cosmetic dental technology evolves.

Many crowns today are made from porcelain bonded in layers to a precious metal base. This combination gives the crown a great deal of strength and stability but can result in a crowned tooth that appears duller than adjacent natural teeth due to a lack of light refraction in the metal base of the crown.

Pure porcelain crowns are not as strong as bonded crowns but they can look very natural and are often used to repair front teeth.

Porcelain can be combined with composite resin materials to create crowns that sometimes have the most natural look, however, these crowns are also not as strong as bonded metal crowns.

Glass crowns can be made to look very natural and are used on both front and back teeth.

Crowns made from precious metal (Gold and Palladium) are very strong and hard-wearing, but are usually reserved for teeth at the back of the mouth, where they are less visible.

In cases where a patient has a missing tooth between two healthy teeth, the dentist can trim down the teeth surrounding the missing one, take a mold (impression) of the three-tooth area, and then have a dental laboratory construct a bridge out of porcelain and gold.

The bridge is then fitted over the surrounding teeth and cemented into place, replacing the missing one. Bridges generally result in teeth that look very natural and most patients report that bridges feel like their own teeth.