Full Porcelain Crown

February 20, 2011 by Lee Chun Hoe

Topics

Intro..
What is a crown
Indications for full porcelain crown
The procedure
Cases of Full Porcelain done in our clinic
Advantages of full porcelain

Intro…

Full porcelain crown is a crown frabricated for highly aesthethic demand patient as people today want to see their crown to be as natural as possible and bleanch to the rest of his/her teeth.

This is where full porcelain material comes in!! It is made mostly of Zirconia or E-Max (lithium disilicate) material. The conventional porcelain is made of porcelain layer fused to a metal surface which make is less transucent and greyish.

With zirconia or E-Max material , no metal use, therefore, no greyish appearance and more natural!!

What is a crown?

A crown is a replacement of the outside casing of your teeth that is permanently fixed to the tooth below. They are few types of crown depends on the material used:

Full porcelain (highly aesthetic crown)
Porcelain fused to metal (commonly used)
Full metal crown (either precious/non-precious metal crown)

Indications

Because full porcelain crown is highly aesthetic, it is used to improve the appearance of the front teeth. For those that are insecure about the appearance of their teeth or their smile, porcelain crowns can be a one-fix-for-all-problems solution.

Full porcelain crown mainly used :

to brighten teeth
to make the tooth slight translucent thus making it more natural
indicated for the front teeth where aesthetic demand is higher
close gap narrowing
fix teeth that stick out
reduce crowding in the mouth

The procedure

To fit the crowns, a thin layer is shaved off teeth that are to receive treatment, and this prepares them for the crowns. On the patient’s first visit of the treatment a mould is taken of their teeth in order to get the perfect shape for the next session. The crowns are then bonded onto the teeth using a bonding material of some sort. Once the bonding has taken place, which will normally take one session at the dentist, the patient’s can eat as normal.

Cases of Full Porcelain done in our clinic

Case 1

This young lady presented with a discolour right lateral incisor and her right central slanting inwards. Two full porcelain crowns were fabricated to change the colour of the lateral incisor as well as to change the shape of the right central incisor (below).

Case 2

A case for prepared tooth (right lateral incisor) for impression taking. A full porcelain crown was fabricated and cemented onto the tooth (below).

Full porcelain crown cemented onto the tooth

Case 3

This young gentleman presented with poorly restore filling material on his front teeth. The fillings were removed and the front teeth were prepared for porcelain crown.

Full porcelain crowns fabricated on the model

The full porcelain crowns were constructed on the model and finally cemented into patient’s mouth (below).

Case 4

Another case of discolour tooth which was treated with full porcelain crown.

Case 5

This man had a non-vital tooth (left central incisor) which was root treated had showed badly discolouration. The tooth was treated with porcelain crown.

Case 6

Another case of discolouration which was treated with full porcelain crown

Advantages of full porcelain

Crowns are very popular because they have an excellent history of fixing dental issues, and their track record is proven to work in all countries in the world. Up until quite recently, crowns were bonded to the tooth using a metal-based framework (porcelain fused to metal) so that the crown could withstand the pressures involved with daily chewing of food in the mouth. Today, most of the time the metal framework is not required, since modern technology has advanced up to the point where pure porcelain is strong enough even for use on hard working molar teeth. The metal framework had an issue – after a few years the gum line of a patient would recede with age, revealing an ugly grey line at the top of the crowned tooth. Due to the color of the metal showing through, it was difficult to make crowned teeth look natural for more than a few years.

The advantage of using pure porcelain is that the crowns are near identical in color to the existing colors of the patient’s teeth, making it nigh on impossible for others to discern a crowned tooth from a real one. A dentist will match the color of the crown to the tooth color already in the mouth, and then they will place an order with a lab to create the tooth with the perfect color and shape, taken from the previously mentioned mold, and patients are very happy with the results, and their new smile.