Crowns & Bridgework
If you’re self-conscious about cracked, broken, decayed, dark or worn teeth, we can bring back your healthy, natural-looking smile with crowns, also called caps or 360 veneers. A crown can restore structure, strength, and function to a tooth with extensive decay or damage. Designed to fit snugly and function as a healthy tooth, a crown will protect your tooth from further damage and preserve the jaw’s correct natural alignment.
We use all-porcelain, or all-ceramic, crowns in most cases as these mimic the color and translucency of your natural tooth enamel. Older-style crowns had metal beneath the porcelain which gave them a “flat” color that didn’t look natural. And they frequently had dark metal lines showing at the gumline. This was especially anesthetic on front teeth.
With all-ceramic crowns, our precise, computer controlled color-matching system allows us to select exactly the right shade of porcelain to blend with your natural tooth color. Porcelain crowns are also extremely durable and long lasting, and these benefits make them popular with dentists as well as patients.
Typically, we can design, fit, and place your crowns in just a couple of short appointments. Once a crown is placed, you can care for it as you do your natural teeth. Conscientious brushing twice a day and daily flossing will protect the base of your crown from bacterial growth. With proper care, crowns can easily last 10 years, or much more.
If you’ve lost teeth due to accident, injury, or gum disease, we can often create a permanent bridge to restore your solid smile. A bridge not only fills the gap, but it also prevents drifting and shifting of remaining teeth. Bridges can be used to correct a misaligned bite, improve chewing function and speech articulation, and provide internal structure and support to your face to give you a more youthful appearance.
A bridge is a prosthetic tooth (or teeth) that attaches on one or both sides to teeth prepared for crowns. A fixed bridge is permanently cemented onto the neighboring abutment teeth (crowned teeth) and consists of three basic units: the false tooth or teeth (called a pontic) and two abutment crowns. The style of bridge we suggest will depend upon the strength and health of the abutment teeth, as well as the location of the gap in relation to the rest of your teeth. If healthy adjacent abutment teeth aren’t available, other options such as partial dentures or dental implants may be discussed. With proper care, a fixed bridge may last 10 years, or more.