A custom cap that holds a weakened tooth together and restores how it looks and bites.
Overview
A crown is a custom-made cap that covers a tooth entirely, restoring its shape, strength and appearance. It is what you need when a tooth has too little structure left to hold a filling reliably.
The tooth is reduced slightly on all sides, scanned or impressed, and the crown made to fit precisely over what remains. It becomes the tooth's new outer surface, and it takes the bite force the weakened tooth can no longer take alone.
Suitability
If one of these suits you better than dental crowns, we will say so at your consultation — including when the right answer is to do nothing for now.
Step by step
X-ray and examination to confirm a crown is the right answer, and that the tooth underneath is sound enough to carry one.
Under local anaesthetic, the tooth is reshaped to make room for the crown. This is irreversible — enamel does not grow back.
A digital scan is taken and the shade matched to your neighbouring teeth. A temporary crown goes on.
The crown is made to fit your prepared tooth precisely.
We check the fit, contact points, shade and bite, adjust as needed, then cement it.
Benefits
Holds a cracked or heavily filled tooth together and prevents it splitting
Restores full chewing function
Modern zirconia and ceramic match the neighbouring teeth closely
Protects a root-treated tooth, which is what makes that treatment last
Resists staining better than natural enamel
After treatment
Who will treat you
MDS · MNDC (New Zealand) · MADC (Australia) · PGDAI (CIIOMFI, France) · Fellow ICOI (USA)
Dr. G. Vijay Srinivas is an Oral & Maxillofacial Pathologist and Implant Dentistry practitioner with more than 35 years of clinical experience, and the founder of AP Superspeciality Dental Hospitals.
Full profileWhere
Questions
Typically 10 to 15 years, and frequently longer with good hygiene. What ends a crown's life is usually not the crown — it is new decay at the margin, or fracture from grinding. Neither is inevitable.
The preparation is done under local anaesthetic, so you should feel pressure and vibration but not pain. Mild sensitivity to cold for a few days afterwards is normal and settles.
For a molar, zirconia — it takes heavy bite force and looks natural. For a front tooth, all-ceramic, which has the best translucency. PFM is the middle ground. Full metal is the most durable but only makes sense where nobody will see it. We will recommend based on the tooth.
We shade-match at the preparation visit and modern ceramics come very close. An exact match to a natural tooth is genuinely hard — enamel is translucent and varies in colour along its length. Single front crowns are the most demanding case, and we will tell you if a good result needs the neighbouring tooth treated too.
Not usually, but do not delay. Keep the crown, avoid chewing on that side, and call us — it can often be re-cemented if the underlying tooth is sound. Do not glue it back yourself.
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