An All-Ceramic crown is usually the best choice for restoring a front tooth that is cracked or broken, or a tooth that is badly damaged and cannot be corrected with a veneer.
Ceramic crowns can be made white and natural-looking. Incorporating dental bonding with all-ceramic crowns potentially can restore both the strength and beauty to that of unblemished natural teeth.
All-Ceramic crowns are color matched to the surrounding teeth making it difficult to tell the difference between it and your natural tooth.
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These restorations have no metal and are totally made of ceramic glass sometimes strengthened with a translucent material such as zirconium.
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 Lava is that it doesn't need to be bonded to the tooth, it can be cemented with ordinary crown and bridge cement.
- e.max is a lithium disilicate glass ceramic that has optimized translucency, durability and strength for full anatomical restorations. Due to the use of new technologies and optimized processing parameters, e.max lithium disilicate has evolved beyond previously available lithium disilicate ceramics. e.max crowns can be cemented using conventional or adhesive cement techniques.
- Procera is similar to Lava, but the milled ceramic on the inside is a more translucent alumina, rather than an opaque white material. The alumina is shaded, and then the final aesthetics 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. Dr. Cohen will help you decide which system is the most appropriate to achieve the strongest and the most natural-looking crowns for your smile.