High-quality Same-day Crowns

A dental crown is a procedure where when we have a tooth that has been compromised to the point where it can't be filled any longer, we will place a crown on the tooth. That is a cover that goes over the tooth instead of inside the tooth like a filling would. There are several types of crowns that can be done depending on what we're trying to accomplish. There are full metal crowns, which are going to give us the best strength. There are porcelain-to-metal crowns, which have been around for a long time and are really the workhorse of crown and bridge. There are CAD/CAM crowns, which have a lot of advantages for the patients because we're able to accomplish them in one day. Once you determine what type of crown you're going to do, the procedure is pretty quick and simple. You prepare the tooth and most of our crowns now, patients are electing for the full porcelain crown done via CAD/CAM where we do it all in one day. There's no temporary crown, there's no second appointment and the process, after we prepare the tooth, we are able to take some pictures. It gives us a digital model that we can design the crown on the computer. Once that crown is designed, we mill it out of a solid block of porcelain. And about 30 minutes later, that crown is ready to cement on the patient's tooth. The whole process for that takes about two hours from the time the patient walks in the door to the time the patient's done with their permanent crown in place. Crowns are a very long-lasting restoration for a tooth. It's not uncommon to have crowns that are 10-15 years old. It is one of the most permanent procedures that we can do for our patient.