One of the most important parts of our body, but often neglected would be our teeth. It's the part of our body that helps us live healthy since it is part of our digestive system; it helps us digest our food. It also gives great help in making first impressions since our teeth can help in bringing out our best smile. Now imagine your teeth becoming damaged and full of cavities. It will disrupt your way of eating and will make your smile incomplete.
Our tooth generally has two parts: the root and the crown. The root is the part hidden underneath our gums. It is the part that connects the tooth to the jaw, and will also contain the nerves that connect to the tooth. The part that is sticking out, which is the one that bites into our teeth and completes our smiles, is called the crown; the other term for it is clinical crown. When the tooth gets damaged, it is the crown that actually gets hit. Cavities on the crown may start a deeper damage to the tooth, and when it opens the part where the nerves are, a severe toothache is to be expected. In cases where filling the damage on the tooth will not help, a porcelain crown is then set.
A porcelain crown, or a dental crown, is a dental appliance that the dentist puts in place to cover the whole damaged tooth, hiding the damage and repairing it at the same time. This is not to be confused with a denture, since a denture replaces a missing tooth. This kind of crown is usually used for protecting a damaged tooth, or to restore a broken tooth. It can also be used if the damage is too big, that using filling would not fix it. This is specially used if the broken tooth is one of the front teeth; it's not a great sight if you see someone smiling, and one of their front teeth is broken. If a patient ever had a root canal, using a porcelain crown can fix the tooth and make sure it will not break or fracture after the operation.
A porcelain crown does not need to be made out of porcelain, of course. With the material easy to mold and relatively easier to apply, most dental crowns use gold to cover them. This is the reason why you may see people with gold teeth; those are dental crowns. When a dentist is preparing a patient for a dental crown installation, he would have them bite onto a mold, which he uses next to check the tooth where they need to install the crown, and then use it to mold the crown itself. While the actual crown is being made, the patient would have a temporary crown, which is usually made out of stainless steel.
Another type of dental crown would be made out of metal. Using gold as a dental crown is a perfect example. This kind of crown would be molded over the tooth in question, making the task a bit easier. Since it is just molded over an existing tooth, there will be no need to adjust the tooth and grind it down to a certain level. Porcelain crowns are available and would be suited for front tooth damage. There is also the type called the porcelain-fused-to-metal, which makes the tooth stronger, but will still contain the white color of the porcelain. This again, is suited for putting a crown on the front teeth.
A dental crown is a permanent fix on the tooth, and it can only be removed by the dentist. It is known that a dental crown would last for at least ten years, but if treated properly, it can last a lifetime. Gold dental crowns would be the ones that last the longest, and this is the reason why this is the material suggested when creating dental crowns on molars. Wear and tear on a dental crown can come from constant movement of the jaw and the teeth together, and this is the reason why porcelain crowns are not immediately advisable, since they will become prone to breakage.
An ounce of prevention is still worth a pound of cure, and the same goes with tooth problems. A dental crown option is always available, but it is definitely better to choose and live a healthy lifestyle, and healthy teeth are always better to look at.