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Prosthetics

Prosthetics

Dental Prosthetics

There are quite a few reasons why people lose their teeth – dental diseases, tooth damage, traumas, parodontosis etc. Dental prosthetics is one of the most popular ways of tooth restoration which helps to obtain aesthetically and functionally teeth which are as strong as natural ones.

Dental crowns can considerably improve visual appearance of the dental arch and the oral cavity. A dental crown is the outer part of the prosthesis, a part visible to a patient.

Professionally made dental crowns:

  • fully restore dental anatomy;
  • restore chewing function;
  • merge with colours of adjacent teeth;
  • maintain gum health thanks to a minuscule contact with teeth – less than 100 microns;
  • serve for decades.

Specifics of Dental Prosthetics

Dental prosthetics can be carried out with various methods. Dental crowns are usually called porcelain crowns, however, the crowns are made from different materials and this can lead to misunderstanding and myths surrounding the procedure. Why does it happen?

Dental prosthetics varies according to the types of crowns used:

  • Feldspathic porcelain crowns. These crowns are made from potassium feldspar and porcelain;
  • Metal porcelain crowns. The base of crown is made from lightweight metal alloys and the base is coated with classic or feldspar porcelain;
  • Galvanic crowns. The base is made from pure gold foil, the rest is coated with porcelain.
  • Empress crowns. These crowns are not made from porcelain, but from heated glass;
  • Procera crowns. The upper part of the crown is cut mechanically, and the outer layer is fired in furnace, just like the classical porcelain-based crowns;
  • Lava crowns. This type of dental crowns is similar to the Procera crowns;
  • Zirconia crowns;
  • Cerec crowns. These crowns are cut out mechanically from monochrome porcelain. The specifics of of these crowns is not in the material, but in the production method;
  • InCeram crowns. The crowns are made from a very dense and very tough porcelain filled with aluminium particles.

High-quality dental prosthetics is carried out with dental crowns which meet the following requirements:

  • the color of the crown should not differ from the color of the real tooth under different lighting;
  • the shape of the crown should be anatomically accurate in all three dimensions;
  • there should be no noticeable transition between the tooth and the crown;
  • the gum around the crown should be gently pink and should enclose freely the edge of the crown; the gum should not bleed.

The Main Problems of Dental Prosthetics

  1. A natural tooth consists of at least three colors. The lower part is slightly darker, the middle part is lighter, and the edge is almost translucent. This problem can easily be solved if dental crowns are put in layers and if porcelain of different colours is used;
  2. Porcelain is a very fragile material which is prone to cracking. Porcelain-based crowns are strengthened with other materials: metal and glass alloys, gold foil, zirconium. However, the strengthening also has certain drawbacks:
    • it is necessary to file down a big part of the tooth so that there is a room for both metal and porcelain;
    • metal must be covered by a protective layer that hides the metallic color, which means that the tooth needs to be filed down even more;
    • the best metal for dental crowns is gold or high-quality gold alloys but this makes the procedure significantly more expensive. Gold has a number of advantages: it can be very thin, it emits light light, and it is a biologically passive metal. Gold adheres well to the tooth surface and makes dental crowns very durable.

Other Options of Dental Prosthetics

The procedure can be also carried out without dental crowns. The other options of dental prosthetics are as follows:

  • bridges – several connected dental crowns which replace the missing teeth;
  • implants – can replace a single or several missing teeth.

It should be taken into account that the price of the procedure depends on the type of the dental crowns used. The best solutions are found for every specific case.

If you are in need of dental prosthetics and you want to know more about different dental crowns, apply for a consultation right now!