In dentistry, crowns and bridges are part of Restorative Dentistry, which refers to the restoration of natural teeth that have been damaged, decayed or lost. Once your dentist has examined your teeth and has evaluated your dental and medical history, your dentist will be ready to provide a diagnosis, and treatment options. A crown may be constructed to restore an individual damaged tooth back to its original form and function, while a bridge may be utilized to replace one or more teeth. These restorations are cemented onto the teeth and are referred to as "fixed" prosthesis as opposed to a restoration of missing teeth with a removable appliance or removable prosthesis.

Crown
A crown is fabricated using an indirect procedure, type of dental restoration, which completely encircles or caps a tooth. The tooth is modified and prepared by using special instruments. The most common method of crowning a tooth involves using a dental impression of a prepared tooth by your dentist to fabricate the crown outside of the mouth. The crown can then be inserted at a subsequent dental appointment with your dentist at Sunrise Dental Clinic. Crown can be made of gold, porcelain or combination of porcelain and gold. It is the patient that decides which one to have.

 

When do you need dental crowns?

• If your tooth has undergone significant decay and not enough tooth structure remaining to support a filling or an inlay/onlay.
• If your tooth has fractured and it cannot be built up using traditional composite bonding techniques.
• If you have a large cavity, a crown gives your tooth an additional protection over a large composite filling or an inlay.
• If you have had a dental implant to replace a missing tooth, a crown will be fitted to the abutment of the titanium implant
• Following a root canal treatment, a crown is often needed to prevent the tooth form fracture and loss.
• If you grind your teeth and have a poor diet, acid erosion may reduce your teeth to a point where the only option available is to crown them.
• For cosmetic reasons, to improve the aesthetics of your smile, you may want all porcelain cosmetic crowns.

Bridge
A bridge refers to prosthesis, also known as a fixed partial prosthesis, which will span the area of a missing tooth. The procedure involves a local anesthetic and the preparation of two or more abutment teeth. Once this has been accomplished, an impression is made and sent to the dental laboratory for fabrication of your new tooth. There are different types of bridges, depending on how they are fabricated and the way they anchor to the adjacent teeth.

A conventional bridge is fabricated by reducing the teeth on either side of the missing tooth or teeth by a preparation pattern determined by the location of the teeth and by the material from which the bridge is fabricated. In other words, the abutment teeth are reduced in size to accommodate the material to be used to restore the size and shape of the original teeth in a correct alignment and contact with the opposing teeth. The materials used for the bridges include gold, porcelain fused to metal, or occasionally porcelain alone. The amount and type of reduction done to the abutment teeth vary slightly with the different materials used.

When do you need dental bridges?
Bridges are recommended when there are one or more teeth missing affecting:

• Your smile and appearance.
• Your bite, as a result of adjacent teeth leaning into the space and altering the way the upper and lower teeth bite together.
• Your speech.
• The shape of your face.
• The rates of gum disease and tooth decay as a result of food accumulated in the gap.

Reasons to replace the missing teeth

• To improve your appearance.
• To reduce the strain on the teeth at either side of the missing tooth.
• To prevent the neighbouring teeth from leaning into the resulting gap and altering the bite.
• To prevent gum disease and tooth decay due to accumulation of food in the gap.