Dental Crowns - Parsippany-Troy Hills, NJ
Protecting Treated & Damaged Teeth
It’s time to give your teeth the royal treatment. Fortify their natural roots by restoring their form and function with durable dental crowns.
What Are Dental Crowns?
If you have a severely worn, damaged, decayed, or weak tooth, your dentist will likely recommend that you have a durable protective cap known as a crown placed over the tooth. Dental crowns can be made from various materials ranging in durability and aesthetic quality.
These include porcelain, ceramic, zirconia, metal, and porcelain-fused-to-metal. Each material serves different purposes and advantages. Crowns are versatile because they can be used to restore a severely damaged or vulnerable tooth, prevent extraction, complete tooth restorations, or cover up cosmetic problems like discoloration. Contact us at Zen Dental Care today to schedule a consultation for dental crowns in Parsippany-Troy Hills.
The Benefits of Dental Crowns
Durability
Crowns are very strong caps that are used to protect already damaged or even broken teeth. To do this, you need high-quality and durable materials. That’s why crowns are regularly fabricated out of long-lasting metals or zirconia, which can withstand significant chewing forces so the underlying tooth doesn’t become damaged. Dental crowns can last for 20 years with proper care and save a tooth from being removed by holding a broken tooth together.
Improve Your Smile
Whether you have discoloration, a misshapen tooth, a noticeable chip, or other cosmetic imperfections that you’d like to hide in a tooth, dental crowns can cover these issues to improve the aesthetics of your smile. Unlike veneers, dental bonding, and teeth whitening, crowns are much more durable and produce long-term results.
Minimally Invasive
The dental crown procedure is a straightforward and painless process. After removing a small amount of enamel around the outside of your tooth, we take a mold of your tooth, and a dental lab creates a custom cap that fits over top. This only takes 2 appointments to complete. Numbing agents prevent you from feeling any pain.
The Dental Crown Treatment Process
Consultation
Our Parsippany dentist will examine your tooth visually and take digital X-rays to check the condition of the internal tissues. This will allow us to diagnose any tooth decay, inflammation, or infection. Any active decay will need to be removed and infections need to be treated. Then, you may be a good candidate for a crown to protect the tooth from any further oral health problems and breakage.
Enameloplasty
To prepare your tooth for crown placement, we need to file the tooth around all sides, removing a layer of enamel to create enough space for the crown to bond with your tooth. This is done after injecting local anesthesia that numbs you.
Impressions
We will take impressions of your prepared teeth and send them to an outside lab specializing in fabricating restorations. They will match the crown to your natural tooth size, shape, and shade so it blends in.
Fabrication
The lab technician will use your impressions as a model for your dental crown. While you wait for the design and creation of your crown to be finished, we will bond a temporary crown to your tooth to protect your trimmed tooth until your next appointment.
Fitting & Bonding
Once your crown is ready, the dental lab will send your crown to us at the office. You will come back in so we can remove the temporary crown. After checking the fit and appearance of the crown, it will be cemented to your tooth.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Long Do Dental Crowns Last?
Dental crown lifespan varies depending on the location of the crown, the material, the condition of the tooth it’s covering, as well as the patient’s lifestyle and oral hygiene. If you care for your dental crown by regularly brushing, flossing, attending dental cleanings, avoiding stains, and preventing wear and tear, then your crown can last for at least 15 years.
However, some other factors come into play here. Crowns placed in the rear of the mouth can degrade faster than those at the front of the mouth, especially when it’s made out of a fragile material like porcelain.
This is why rear molars should be protected with metal, zirconia, or porcelain-fused-to-metal crowns. If you eat a lot of staining foods and drinks or smoke, this can also negatively impact the shade of your crown as well as your oral health. Chewing on hard foods or grinding your teeth can damage crowns over time. Prevention is the key to a long lifespan.
Think dental crowns are right for you? Consult with a preventative dentist near you today.