Advantages and Disadvantages of Ceramic Crowns

Dental crowns are placed as a cap over the tooth. It is used to restore the shape, size, strength and thereby improving the appearance of the tooth. Ceramic crowns are one of the most popular types of dental crown. Dental crowns/ceramic crowns are used in order to:

• Protect a weak tooth from breaking or to hold together the parts of cracked tooth

• Restore the broken or worn out tooth

• To cover and also to support a tooth which has large filling

• Holding a dental bridge

• Covering the tooth which is misshapen or stained teeth

• Covering dental implant

• To enhance the appearance of stained teeth

Ceramic Crowns are a type of cosmetic crown which is made out of only and only ceramic. There will be no other material used. Other types of cosmetic crowns are porcelain and gold crowns. They are made out of a translucent material which gives a very appealing and attractive look to your teeth. It is a top quality crown and lasts for a really long time.

Most of the ceramic crows are made out from CAD or CAM technology and there are two types:

• Zirconia

• E-Max

There are multiple advantages of ceramic crowns. They are suited for those people who have minimum space in their mouth for a crown. It is also preferred by those who prefer to have natural appearance for their teeth.

The other advantage of ceramic crowns is that they are made out of thinner material as compared to other crowns. This leads to a light weight crown. Apart from that the material is also bio-compatible which means that it is very gentle to the gums and also helps in growing it. Patients have never complained about any sort of allergic reactions. Moreover there hasn’t been any case of sensitivity as well.

Well, what’s an advantage without disadvantages? A ceramic crown is beautiful to look at and gives a natural look to your teeth when fitted. They are also lifelong however their durability has always been questioned as they are prone to crack or even break. The way they are refined to give that smooth and teeth like appearance makes it difficult to fit to the teeth. Apart from all this ceramic crowns are costly as well.

The procedure to fit a ceramic crown is similar to fitting of any other crown. Your dentist will clean and then reshape the tooth so that it can be prepared for treatment. To make sure the crown fits in your dentist will taper the teeth.

After this an impression of your teeth will be taken with the help of a material called as dental putty. This prepares a mould and is there by send to a lab where they will prepare a crown. You will have to wait for 2-3 weeks for this ceramic crown to be prepared and until then you will be fitted with a temporary crown. Once the crown is ready you will have to visit the dental clinic to undergo a surgery. Once the crown fits snugly with the teeth you are good to go.

After the treatment you are expected to take care of your ceramic crown and ensure that you do not apply too much pressure to your teeth. Too much pressure might break the crown. Also make sure to see your dentist time and again.