Crowns & Veneers

A crown can return structure, strength, and function to a tooth with extensive decay or damage. If you're self-conscious about cracked, broken, decayed, or worn teeth, we can bring back your healthy, natural-looking smile with dental crowns, also called caps. Designed to fit snugly and function as a healthy tooth, a crown will protect your tooth from further damage and preserve the jaw's correct natural alignment.

We use precious metal, porcelain pressed (or fused) to metal, or all-porcelain crowns. To maintain a fully white smile, we recommend all-ceramic crowns. Our precise color-matching system allows us to find the right shade of porcelain to blend with your natural tooth color. Porcelain crowns are also extremely durable and long lasting, and these benefits make them popular with dentists as well as patients.

Typically, we can design, fit, and place your crowns in just a couple of short appointments. Once a crown is placed, you can care for it as you do your natural teeth. Conscientious brushing twice a day and daily flossing will protect the base of your crown from bacterial growth. Be sure to see us at least two times each year for professional cleanings and a preventive exam, too.

Reasons for crowns:

• Can be used to produce significant color and shape changes for a tooth.
• Are often used to rebuild teeth that are badly broken or decayed.
• Are very strong. Dental crowns are a good choice in those situations where the tooth is subject to significant chewing and biting forces (occlusal forces) or else tooth clenching and grinding (bruxism).
• Require a significant amount of tooth reduction when made.
• Are needed after a tooth has had a root canal
• Once a crown has been made for a tooth the tooth will always require a dental crown.

Veneers

In comparison to a dental crown, the classic porcelain veneer is a wafer thin shell of ceramic that is bonded onto the front side of a tooth. Whereas a dental crown covers over and encases the entire tooth, a porcelain veneer just covers over the side of the tooth that shows when the person smiles. Dental crowns and porcelain veneers also differ by way of their relative thickness. The classic porcelain veneer will measure 1 millimeter in thickness or less, as opposed to a dental crown that typically measures 2 millimeters or more.

These characteristics together mean that significantly less tooth reduction is needed when a dentist prepares a tooth for a porcelain veneer as opposed to when a dental crown is made. This is a very positive thing. Less sound tooth structure is sacrificed. The preparation process is less traumatic for the tooth.

There are two types of veneers, ceramic veneers that are produced by a dental laboratory and resin-based composite veneers. With proper care, your new veneers will greatly improve your appearance and increase your confidence for years to come.

Porcelain Veneers:

• Can be used to produce significant color and minor shape changes for a tooth.
• Are placed on teeth whose underlying tooth structure is generally healthy and intact.
• Are strong but brittle. Porcelain veneers typically do best in those situations where the occlusal forces they are subject to are somewhat passive.
• Typically require much less tooth reduction than dental crowns.
• For all practical purposes, once a porcelain veneer has been made for a tooth the tooth will always require a veneering of some type, although this could be another porcelain veneer, possibly another form of tooth veneering, or else the tooth could be further reduced and a dental crown could be placed.

CEREC

If you want high quality and convenience, we have the answer. With the CEREC 3, an in-practice high-tech "ceramic laboratory," we can create and place your esthetic restorations in a single session without the need for a second visit.

The CEREC 3 uses metal-free ceramic materials that won't discolor your smile. This material is compatible with gum tissue and is plaque-resistant. The esthetic look achieved is impressive. It's also healthier because ceramic restorations save more of the healthy tooth. Replace your "silver" fillings, gold crowns and other obsolete dental materials, and craft beautiful porcelain veneers to transform your smile. No wet, clay-like impressions are taken and no temporary tooth replacements are needed, which are required when using an outside lab.

Watch the process in complete comfort as this computer-aided design technology creates the restoration in about an hour. A block of ceramic material is placed in this high-tech, diamond tipped, milling machine until it is precisely fashioned. Then the esthetic, youthful restoration is bonded to your tooth. Bonding creates a strong, stable, and more naturally responding tooth. The CEREC 3 gives you greater value.