Even with the best care, accidents and dental disease still arise. Cavities can occur, or teeth can be damaged or lost, causing pain, difficulty eating and compromised appearance.
If you find yourself in that position, Woodbridge Dental Care has a wide range of restorative treatments available to help, such as crowns and bridges. Crowns and bridges are applied with skill and precision in our friendly, supportive and hygienic environment.
A crown (or “cap”) is constructed by a technician in a laboratory and is usually constructed from porcelain, zirconia or a combination of both. Essentially, it is a durable, tooth-coloured shell which fits over the entire tooth and is held in place with cement. Both zirconia and porcelain crowns are highly aesthetic and with the aid of our intra-oral cameras to capture the shade of adjacent teeth, can be made to almost seamlessly blend in with your natural teeth. Even staining around the gum margins or within the fissures of the teeth can be added to make your crown look even more realistic! Gold crowns are also available but have largely been superseded due to the natural appearance of their successors and the current high cost of gold. Because tooth preparation is required to create space for your crown, they are most suited to restoring heavily broken down or root canal treated teeth. They can also be provided on a cosmetic basis to improve the appearance of misshapen or discoloured teeth where a white filling alone would not suffice.
A bridge is a laboratory constructed appliance replacing one or more missing teeth. Unlike a denture, it is permanently attached and as with crowns, the material for the bridge is usually porcelain or zirconia or a mixture of both, depending on whether appearance or strength is more critical. As with crowns, preparation of the teeth is required to create space for the bridge. Usually, this would involve preparing the adjacent tooth (or teeth) in the same way that we would for a crown. Prior to dental implants being pioneered, bridges were the most common way of providing a fixed replacement for missing teeth. As a general rule, dental implants are now regarded as the gold standard as they restore more of the original function and do not require preparation of adjacent teeth to support them. That is not to say that a bridge is a bad option but an implant should always be considered.
Crowns are often indicated in cases where teeth are heavily broken down and at risk of fracture or following root canal treatment of molar or premolar teeth. They provide a better seal than an ordinary restoration and this prevents bacteria leaking into the root canal space. Poor coronal seal is a common cause of failure of root canal treated teeth; this can be time consuming and expensive to resolve.
A crown will also optimally displace forces during chewing so that they are not concentrated in any one area of the tooth and reduce the risk of root fracture of root canal treated teeth; something which would generally require extraction of the tooth. More conservative variants of an indirect restoration, such as inlays (which sit inside the tooth) and onlays (cover the biting surface), may also be considered as they require less tooth preparation.
It may well be that you have a space due to a missing tooth which does not bother you cosmetically or functionally and which you would prefer to leave. By no means does loss of a natural tooth automatically necessitate replacement of this tooth. Replacing missing teeth can provide other benefits aside of cosmetic and functional improvement by preventing the drift of adjacent teeth or eruption of opposing teeth, both of which can adversely affect your bite. We are happy to offer advice so please feel free to seek the opinion of your dentist as to whether missing teeth would warrant replacement.
We usually advise monolithic zirconia crowns for restoring molar/premolar teeth, as they are exceptionally strong whilst blending in seamlessly against your natural teeth. Advances in bonding to zirconia make it more versatile and whilst porcelain offers improved aesthetics, zirconia is considerably stronger, so perfect for crowns in high-stress sites. In cases where aesthetics are more important than exceptional strength, such as when restoring teeth in the smile line, we would advise all-porcelain E-Max crowns which offer superlative appearance but are not as strong as monolithic zirconia. In cases where higher strength is required, porcelain can be layered onto a zirconia core to offer the best of both worlds.
The vast majority of our crown and bridge work is sent to local laboratory Dental Art Ceramics in Norwich. Their standard of work and attention to detail is simply exceptional and they are used by leading regional specialist practice Norfolk Dental Specialists.
Our practice has invested in state of the art intra-oral scanners to capture in the finest detail the contour and shape of the prepared tooth/teeth, ensuring the best possible fit of the final restoration and negating the need for unpleasant dental impressions. The use of the scanner in conjunction with our intra-oral camera will also ensure the closest possible match in appearance of your new crown(s) and/or bridge(s) to your natural teeth. Dental Art Ceramics offer a highly personalised service and for no extra charge you are welcome to attend their laboratory in person for shade taking and to discuss specific requirements.
If you are seeking high-quality crown and bridgework, please contact the team at Woodbridge Dental Care 01394 334555 to arrange an appointment
