Porcelain Crowns

A crown is a dental restoration that covers your entire tooth. It used to be that any crown had to have some metal in it for strength. Today, we can make them out of all porcelain, meaning that they can look very esthetic and very natural.

Unfortunately, dental schools emphasize the use of porcelain fused to metal crowns, and that's the only crown many dentists know how to do for front teeth. But porcelain fused to metal crowns for front teeth can look opaque, unnatural, and tend to develop a dark line at the gumline after a few years.

Porcelain Crown Choices for Front Teeth

A dental crown on a front tooth is needed when either a good portion of the tooth is gone or a good portion of the biting edge is gone - there are large old fillings, a tooth fracture, or a large area of tooth decay. A filling is used to fill a small portion of the tooth - a crown when the tooth has extensive damage. And there are three basic categories of crowns for front teeth: bonded all porcelain, extra strength all porcelain, or porcelain fused to metal.

BONDED ALL PORCELAIN

This is the type of crown that a dentist will almost always place on a front tooth. It is made entirely of porcelain or other ceramic material. Now the type of porcelain used for crowns for teeth by itself is usually not very strong. The way a dentist will handle this is he or she will bond the crown to the tooth, thus giving it plenty of strength to function. This type of crown has the nicest appearance. It mimics the appearance of nature to the point where it is difficult to tell that it is not a natural tooth. And while an all porcelain crown is strong enough for front teeth, it may not be strong enough for some back teeth in some patients with an extra strong bite.

CORE Supported ALL PORCELAIN

There are some ceramic materials that have extra strength because they are bonded to a stroner core. However, they aren't as esthetic as the bonded all porcelain crowns. Some brand names of crowns that are this type are Procera crowns, InCeram crowns, Cercon crowns, and Lava crowns. While they don't have an opaque metal core, most of them (but not all of them) have an opaque white core, so some of them may not be as esthetic for front teeth. They don't tend to develop the dark black line at the gumline that porcelain fused to metal crowns do, but they can still reveal a sharp color difference where the crown meets the tooth. Zirconia crowns can be made translucent, and if they are bonded onto the teeth they won't show a dark line.

HIGH STRENGTH ALL PORCELAIN

There is one ceramic materials that has very high strength without a core called lithium disilicate or eMax. It is either more or less lucent than bonded all porcelain crowns. This is the most common porcelain used for posterior teeth and it can be milled and hardened in less than an hour.