Crowns are designed to protect a tooth from breaking by covering the tooth on four sides, top, back front and two sides. They are recommended after a tooth breaks, is in danger of breaking, has extensive decay, or has had a root canal, Crowns can be made from metal (precious, semiprecious, non-precious), porcelain fused to metal, porcelain fused to alumina, porcelain fused to zirconia, plastic or all porcelain.

A crown is made by removing tooth structure to compensate for the thickness of the crown. The more layer of a crown the more removal of tooth, In this way the crown will be about the same size as the original tooth.

Cast metal crowns have been used in dentistry for over 100 years. They do not break and are not abrasive to the opposing teeth. However they are not esthetic and therefore are used in non-visible posterior areas. Delmarva Dental Services only uses precious metal for their all-metal crowns since it is the best.

Porcelain can be layered onto different substances. The most popular is metal Porcelain fused to metal crowns are tooth colored with a metal framework under the porcelain for strength. They have been used for over 50 years and comprise of about 75% of the crowns done in the U.S. Newer metal free frameworks have been developed such as alumina and zirconium. They require more tooth structure removal (about 2 millimeters as opposed to 1) than all metal to make room for metal and porcelain. They occasionally break but not normally. Porcelain fused to metal crowns are usually natural looking if properly prepared by dentist and laboratory. However they can wear the opposing teeth.

All porcelain crowns have been used for 100 years. Stronger porcelains and improvements in adhesion to tooth structure have improved this procedure immensely.

This type of crown is the most natural since it has translucency like natural teeth. These are the best crowns for front teeth.

They are not quite as strong as porcelain fused to metal and all metal crowns. They must be used with caution on back teeth where biting forces are greater. They also tend to wear the opposing natural teeth over time.

All plastic crowns are not used much in dentistry because they tend to lose their shine over time and do not offer many advantages over porcelain.
 

Delmarva Dental Services provides all of the above crowns.