A crown is a tooth shaped “cap” that is placed over a prepared tooth, to restore its shape and size, strength, and improve its appearance. The crown when cemented into place, fully encases the tooth, in much the same way as a sandcastle bucket covers a sandcastle. The dentist firstly shapes the tooth to the shape required, takes a mould, and this mould/impression is used to construct the crown. A temporary crown is made in the meantime . Crowns are made from quite a variety of materials today.
A crown may be required in the following instances:
Long term replacement of a filling that has continually broken/Protection of a Root Treated Tooth/Part of a Bridge/On top of an Implant/To definitively improve a cosmetically problem tooth e.g out of shape or discoloured.
The image on top left are of a person who had a bad fall and knocked out two teeth. These were successfully replaced , but they became dark after root treatment. The next image shows the improved appearance with three crowns bonded .