Crowns
A dental crown is a tooth-shaped "cap" that is placed over a tooth, covering the tooth to restore it's shape, size, strength and/or to improve it's appearance. The crowns when cemented in place, fully encase the entire visible portion of your tooth that lies at and above the gum line.
It may be needed to:
• Protect a weak tooth from breaking or to hold together parts of a cracked tooth.
• Restore an already broken/badly decayed tooth that has been severely worn down.
• Cover and support a tooth with a large filling when there isn't a lot of tooth left, thus increasing it's strength.
• Cover misshaped or severely discoloured teeth to improve it's appearance.
• After a root canal treatment especially if the tooth is heavily filled.
• Hold a dental bridge in place.
• Cover a dental implant.
Crowns can be made from different materials – gold, porcelain-fused-to-metal (PFMs) and all ceramic. Your dentist can assess for you your suitability for a crown as it requires healthy gums and adequate tooth structure to retain the crown.
Bridges
As an alternative to dental implants or dentures, dental bridges can provide you with a fixed option of replacing single or multiple teeth. Not only does it fill the missing space, thereby giving you back a complete smile, it will also prevent the teeth on either side of the space from shifting.
It is permanently joined onto the neighbouring teeth (anchor teeth) on either side of the toothless area, and consists of three basic units: the false tooth/teeth and two crowns on the anchor teeth. Your dentist can assess whether a bridge is an option for you as it requires healthy gums and healthy adjacent anchor teeth.
Bridge placement and fitting is fairly straightforward. Our dentists will simply reduce the adjacent teeth as needed to anchor the bridge, take a careful impression of your mouth, and have the lab custommake your bridge. Upon delivery of the restoration from the lab, we'll fit it into place and check for function, looks and comfort.
