Dental Crowns and Bridges

A dental crown is something that's indicated on the tooth when a tooth has been structurally compromised. So the typical scenario was that you, as a young person, you had your first molar filled as a 12-year-old. It was refilled again as a 25-year-old. It was potentially fractured on a peanut when you were 40. And now we don't have a lot of tooth structure to work with. The crown basically gives back the structural integrity to a tooth that allows it to be supported circumferentially to reduce the likelihood of fracture. And we have the opportunity to build it out of a number of different materials based on the mechanical burden that that tooth would be under. So a second molar or first molar is going to have a considerable more mechanical burden than the upper front tooth. And the aesthetic value of an upper front tooth is going to be far more important than the aesthetic value of a posterior tooth of a second molar. So we have the ability and we have the laboratory support, certainly to be able to deliver those units, those crowns or those bridges with a choice of materials that give us ideal esthetics, ideal function, ideal mechanics for that specific indication. Now crowns are typically or are suited for single-tooth restorations. And in other words, a crown solves an issue for one tooth. Now, when someone's missing a tooth or possibly two teeth, they attach to the tooth behind the space and a tooth in front of the space. They look like teeth, they feel like teeth, they brush like teeth, they function like teeth. And again, depending on the location in the mouth is the choice of materials for ultimate aesthetics or ultimate mechanical burden. And again, that laboratory support we've got spectacular laboratories that allow us to be able to deliver those to the highest level.