.Cosmetic

Dental Crowns or "caps" offer a solution for teeth that are too badly damaged to be corrected with fillings or veneers. Crowns can restore both the strength and beauty to natural teeth.

TYPES OF DENTAL CROWNS

There are generally three types of crowns - those made of gold, all-ceramic and ceramic-veneered gold crowns. Gold and metal-ceramic crowns are extremely durable and are normally used in molars, where the forces from chewing and grinding are most prevalent. Ceramic crowns are used primarily for front teeth, since they can best resemble the natural tooth color and are more pleasing to the eye.

Crowns Made of Gold

Gold crowns are used when appearance is not a priority to you. The gold is extremely workable, making gold crowns a more precise fit than any other type. While there exists a slight possibility of chipping with porcelain crowns, gold crowns provide no such problem.

Types of Porcelain used with Dental Crowns

There are basically two types of porcelain used in dental caps and crowns, these are feldspathic and pressed ceramic porcelains. The feldspathic type is the original method that has been around for 20 years. A Ceramist in a dental lab bakes porcelain onto thin high noble alloy shell and then heats it in an oven. The Ceramist is able to create tints and opaques inside the porcelain of the dental cap or crown to give the natural look we seek.

Pressed ceramic is created from a single ingot. The ingot is melted and pressed in one piece to create the desired shape of the cap or crown. The stains and opaques are applied only to the surface of the porcelain to give a natural look for your new smile.

Resin and Porcelain - Crowns and Onlays

The new reinforced resin or bonded all-porcelain type of cap has the nicest appearance in cosmetic dentistry. This cap can be made from pure ceramic or a new reinforced composite resin. It is almost indistinguishable from natural teeth. The new bonding technology involved provides an exceptional bond your tooth. It is metal-free, and thus satisfies the needs of patients with metal sensitivities. When correcting your back teeth with bonding, the cosmetic dentist will perform a tooth colored onlay. This type of procedure is used to correct only the parts of your tooth that are in need. This procedure is metal-free.

Porcelain and Metal Crowns

For a very natural appearance, porcelain fused to metal crowns are the answer for you. However, they have a metal substructure and require an opaque below the porcelain, which can make the translucency of natural teeth difficult to match. Sometimes a darker line will be visible at the edge of the cap, near to your gum when your gum recedes with age.

We provide Empress, Procera, and Lava all-ceramic crown systems, as well as computer aided all-ceramic designed crowns.

Feldspathic porcelain is the standard, traditional porcelain that is used for crowns. Many cosmetic dentists feel that this is the most beautiful porcelain.

Types of porcelain used in creating crowns:

Empress strictly speaking, is not a porcelain, but more like a glass. Empress can be called a ceramic material. The Empress material is cast rather than baked as a feldspathic porcelain crown is. The fit of Empress is more precise than the baked feldspathic porcelain. However, the color in Empress is mostly baked on the outside. Empress can be very beautiful. For appearance's sake, some expert cosmetic dentists prefer the feldspathic porcelain, and some prefer the Empress.

Lava Zirconia is a milled ceramic on the inside with a more traditional porcelain baked onto the outside. The advantage of Lava is its exceptional strength. However, the milled ceramic core is opaque white, so many cosmetic dentists feel that it isn't as natural-looking as the more translucent materials. An advantage of Lavais that it doesn't have to be bonded to the tooth but can be cemented with ordinary crown and bridge cement, a technique familiar to all dentists.

Procera is similar to Lava, but the milled ceramic on the inside is a more translucentalumina, rather than an opaque white material. The alumina is shaded, and then the final esthetics of the crown are achieved in the baked-on outer layer. The procera crown can also be cemented with traditional techniques. However, any crown cemented with a traditional crown and bridge cement is going to be susceptible to a compromise in the appearance if that cement line ever shows.

Are all Ceramic Crowns the best choice for me?

Porcelain fused to gold offers a great cosmetic option for rear molars when strength of the restoration is a concern. We offer several Dental Crowns and Caps restorative options. We will help you decide which system is the most appropriate to achieve the strongest and the most natural looking crowns for your smile.

Cosmetic Bonding and Veneering for Natural Looking Teeth

Beautiful, natural looking teeth are easily attainable with Cosmetic Bonding and Veneering. After a tooth's surface has been properly prepared, dental bonding can refer to any process where a dentist attaches white colored dental filling material to a tooth.

How can Cosmetic Bonding and Veneering help me?

Dental bonding is utilized as a way to improve the appearance of a defect found on the surface of a tooth, to replace tooth structure that has chipped or broken off, or to repair damage caused by tooth decay. This technique can also be used to resurface the entire front side of a tooth, just to improve its cosmetic appearance.

Is Cosmetic Bonding and Veneering the best choice for me?

Drs. Lee, Bonfiglio, Vesely & Associates performs a wide variety of techniques to fill teeth. Most especially, bonded white resin fillings, porcelain inlays and onlays, and cast-gold fillings are used. We will consult with you to ensure that you make the choice of dental filling that works best for you. A filling should remain in place for many years, protecting your teeth without your ever noticing it’s there.

When compared with other cosmetic dentistry procedures dental bonding can be relatively inexpensive, and is usually "completed in one visit" type dental procedure. One disadvantage of dental bonding is that it has a tendency to stain over time and in general isn't as lasting or durable as other cosmetic dental procedures. However, and one more point in the plus column, if dental bonding does chip or break it can usually be easily patched or repaired.