busting myths about dental crowns

Crowns may hold fake teeth, but they don’t look fake

Your dentist in West st Paul will select durable porcelain or ceramic materials to craft teeth of a colour, texture and sheen to blend completely naturally with your own healthy teeth. Your dentist has the same goal as you: To replace the cosmetic appearance and dental function of the tooth or teeth being covered by your crown without requiring that you sacrifice function or form. Crowns will blend completely naturally with your own teeth at their healthiest.

Your crown won’t feel any different than your healthiest natural teeth

Maybe you’ve gotten used to eating, biting and chewing with a damaged or weakened tooth. That’s a common reason that a dentist near you may recommend that you get a crown — if your tooth has large fillings or was damaged in an accident or injury. One goal of crowns, though, is to provide all the strength and structural support that your tooth needs to be able to function perfectly. A well-designed bonded properly onto a professionally prepared tooth will work just like a healthy and natural tooth. You won’t need to use that tooth tentatively — or avoid using it altogether — ever again.

Crowns are a luxury, not necessarily a priority

Crowns can help you achieve purely cosmetic goals that you may be content to defer or schedule for the perfect moment down the road. In other situations, though, crowns solve urgent and essential dental needs that should not be delayed to avoid any unnecessary risk to your health. If you have a badly cracked or split tooth, for example, that tooth is highly vulnerable to penetration by bacteria that may cause tooth decay and eventually force the extraction (and eventual replacement) of that tooth. If your dentist has recommended getting a dental crown near you to protect and restore a badly damaged tooth, that recommendation is not a luxury that should be deferred but an essential medical treatment you should receive as soon as possible from a dentist near you.

No, another filling won’t accomplish the same thing

Fillings are an essential dental procedure that can accomplish many important things, but there can be too much of a good thing. Fillings are used to replace tissue lost to tooth decay with the result that you’ve been left with cavities — holes or caves in your teeth. If you’ve suffered multiple cavities in a single tooth or have had to have fillings replaced over and over, a crown may be the only solution that can prevent the need for a tooth extraction. Multiple large fillings in a single tooth will eventually leave behind a tooth too weak to function without the support a crown can provide. Repeatedly needing to replace a filling is a good sign that the location, shape or size of a filling or cavity (or more than one) has significantly undermined the structural integrity of that tooth. You may have two choices: a crown or an extraction. By opting for a crown, you can avoid the cost and challenges of undergoing an extraction and tooth replacement down the road.

Dentists recommend a dental crown in Winnipeg for cosmetic and restorative reasons. Crowns are rarely your only option for fixing a discoloured, misshapen, broken or weakened, but they’re a good option. Beyond fixing those issues, crowns also provide the essential anchors and support for traditional dental bridges and can even protect a tooth that underwent a root canal procedure from future infections.

If you’ve received a recommendation to receive a dental crown in Winnipeg, consider that recommendation carefully, with all the facts in mind… and none of the fiction.