When it comes to restorative dentistry, the crown is the number one tool in the dentist's toolkit. It allows them to repair a variety of problems that affect individual teeth and to restore your appearance to its original glory. Yet in the past, the fitment of a crown would be quite a process and would require more than one visit to the dentist's office. Recently, this has changed with the arrival of the "same day" crown. What is this and how is it beneficial to you?
How Crowns Are Designed
With the conventional approach, the first step would be to create a temporary crown while the permanent version was being made elsewhere. These would be made from resin or in some cases stainless steel and are really there to stop food getting into the worksite and the development of any inflammation. The temporary crown would be fitted after the dentist had finished whatever work needed to be done on the base of the existing tooth and after the proper measurements had been taken to create the permanent version.
The Old Way
For many years, the permanent crown would have to be made at a dental lab off-site, working with the directions given by the dentist and often with a mould of the damaged tooth itself. Sometimes, you'd have to wait for two or three weeks before the item had been returned to the dentist's office and you could go back to complete the work.
Instant Results
The permanent "same day" crown will be made of ceramic and created right there in the dentist's office, while you wait. This is due to a revolutionary approach involving computer aided design and manufacturing (CAD/CAM), where all the dimensions are taken using a tiny camera to create a sequence of 3-D images. All of this appears on a screen in front of the dentist, who is able to make fine alterations to these dimensions if needed, before the file is complete. Then, a request is sent to the manufacturing machine which also sits in the same office, and this begins the process of creating the crown from a block of ceramic.
Any delay associated with the off-site dental lab is eliminated using this process and the dentist will be able to fit the permanent crown before you leave that day. In this case, you will be able to get instant results and not have to allocate any more of your precious time for that subsequent visit.
For more information about dental procedures, such as same day crowns, contact a dentist.
Share26 October 2017
When I had my first child, I was a nervous wreck. Every book I read gave different advice, and I just wanted to be right! By the time I had my third child, some of the stress had abated. I now realised, there were tons of different perspectives on everything related to raising children including dentistry. To help parents, I have created this blog dedicated to unraveling dental myths about children. I am including posts that weigh both sides of issues such as thumb sucking, dental caries, breastfeeding, flossing and any other topic I can think of. I hope you find the information you need to unravel dental myths, but most importantly, I hope you find some peace of mind. With kids and dentistry, there can be more than one right answer, and I want you to be able to relax and go with the answer that's right for you.
