Dental Crowns
Wausau, WI

Dental crowns - also known as "caps" - serve such an incredibly important job in your mouth. Despite their many versatile purposes, however, they remain largely misunderstood. While many people seem to think crowns are exclusively a cosmetic device, they are so much more than that. They are also extremely critical to improve your oral health and even strengthen your teeth.

Whether you have missing teeth or a tooth that is in danger of becoming dislodged or loose, then it is important that you come to see us here at Wanserski Dental Center for Complex Dentistry to determine if dental crowns can improve your smile and salvage your damaged or at-risk tooth.

What are Dental Crowns and What Do They Do?

While dental crowns can improve the appearance of your smile, that is not the only thing they are good for. If you have teeth that are stained, yellowed, discolored, or uneven, dental crowns can certainly help conceal any discolorations and help your teeth look straight and even again. That is not the limit of their value, however.

Dental crowns can strengthen a tooth that has been damaged or broken, bolstering it. Dental crowns can also help restore teeth that have severe tooth decay and will no longer benefit from a conventional filling. Lastly, dental crowns can serve as anchors if you ever need to get a dental bridge or dental implants.

Dental crowns come in several different materials. The type of material we recommend to you will greatly depend on where we need to place it. If your crown is in a more hidden area of your mouth, such as over a molar, we may recommend a metal crown to you. Some common metals that we may use in our office include gold, stainless steel, or alloys.

We may also recommend a porcelain-fused-to-metal crown in a less visible space, as it can still look like a natural tooth but still have some of the same strength of an all-metal crown. Another common type that we like to recommend includes all-ceramic or all-porcelain. These have the advantage of resembling real teeth and appearing natural, which is great for your visible front teeth, but they may not have the same strength of all-metal crowns.

Getting a dental crown placed is a safe and routine procedure. We will begin by prepping the site by carefully applying local anesthetic to help you avoid feeling any discomfort. The tooth that will receive the crown will then be shaped for the crown, which sometimes involves removing tooth material.

We will take an impression of the tooth then cast the crown from the mold. Once the crown is ready, we will apply it directly to the affected tooth. When we are confident that it will be a good fit, we will securely affix it to your tooth using dental cement and cure it using a special ultraviolet light. A little bit of sensitivity is common in the weeks following this procedure, but you can combat it with over-the-counter pain relievers like ibuprofen or acetaminophen.

What To Learn More?

If you are interested in learning more about dental crowns, we would love to discuss them with you further. For more information or to schedule an appointment with us here at Wanserski Dental Center for Complex Dentistry, please give us a call at (715) 848-2435 today!