Gold or silver is eye-catching when worn on your hand or draped around your neck. However, with today’s trend toward natural-looking cosmetic dentistry, these same precious metals lose their allure when seen inside of your mouth. Esthetically and health-wise, patients are demanding more realistic and natural tooth-like materials for substantial dental work including crowns.
Los Angeles dentist, Dr. Michael Delmont, specializes in metal-free dentistry. He offers patients porcelain dental crowns as an alternative to metal-ceramic or gold alloy caps. Crowns are an artificial cover that protects injured or diseased teeth.
Porcelain crowns can be sized, the tooth prepped, and a new crown applied in just a few office visits.
Following your initial consultation, your damaged tooth will be cleaned of all decay and any damaged tissue material so there is no potential for further erosion. Impressions are taken and a temporary crown will be fitted onto the tooth. The permanent porcelain crown will be ready in one to two weeks. It will color-match your adjacent teeth and it will be applied using a strong cement adhesive.
Benefits of porcelain crowns include:
- Stronger materials: Opposed to resin composites, porcelain crowns are more durable. They can last 15-20 years and are very resistant to staining or chipping.
- Realistic feel: Porcelain crowns are most similar to your original tooth material in color and texture so it will not feel like a foreign object inside of your mouth.
- Better function: The porcelain is applied using cement that can bond it to your existing tooth with a glove-like fit so it helps your tooth retain its natural speaking and chewing ability.
- Aesthetically appealing: The porcelain is selected to be similar to your natural tooth shade, and it offers translucency so it appears nearly undetectable to others.
- Stain resistant: Porcelain is immune to staining or discoloration from drinking dark liquids – the tooth will look as bright 10 years from now as today! In addition, should you wish to adapt the shade to “age” with your natural teeth, the porcelain coating can be reapplied, and shading adjusted.
- More comfortable: Another major advantage of these crowns is that they can be molded to any size and therefore fit comfortably.
- Boost confidence: A white, perfectly aligned row of teeth can give a burst of confidence to your ego and the extra assurance you need to face your day and the opportunities that await!
