Easier than you think? – Dental crown placement from London dentist
Sometimes, when teeth are damaged to such an extent, they cannot be repaired using ordinary dental bonding and this can put the patient at risk of further pain and damage. On these occasions it is necessary to protect the integral structure of the tooth using a dental crown. In the past dentists have been more reluctant to use crowns for several reasons. Firstly, because they took so long to make (up to three weeks) and even then were often poorly fitting. Secondly, they required the removal of otherwise healthy enamel to be able to fit over the top of the damaged tooth, which was an irreversible procedure. However, with the advent of certain modern technology, dental crowns are now a lot easier to fit than you might have thought.
More and more London dentists are using CAD/CAM technology. This stands for computer aided design/computer aided manufacture and has revolutionised the crown making and fitting process. Dentists are now able to use 3D cameras and digital x-rays to create an exact image of the patients mouth on a computer. They can then use this image to design a perfectly fitting crown before instructing the computer-guided mill to sculpt the new crown from a single piece of porcelain. As if this wasn’t impressive enough, it can take as little as six minutes to mill a new crown from a single block of porcelain. This technology has addressed the time factor of dental crowns and it also has a solution for the enamel removal problem. Because the new crown is carved from a single piece of porcelain it is very structurally strong and therefore very thin. This means that far less, if any, enamel needs removing prior to fitting a new crown.
The results possible using this new technology are astonishing. Porcelain can be chosen to match the exact colour of the patient’s teeth so that the crown looks incredibly real. If you are suffering with damaged teeth but have always been put off by the idea of a crown, maybe it’s time you took another look.