Do you have a tooth that is discolored, decayed, cracked, or chipped? Is your tooth sensitive to temperature or pressure when chewing? In many of these situations a crown can solve all these problems and restore your beautiful smile.

• A crown may be required instead of a filling is some situations like:
• A heavily decayed tooth
• The failure of a large filling
• A cracked tooth
• Protecting a tooth after root canal treatment

When you have a small cavity a composite filling can be used to restore the tooth. But if the tooth is too broken or decayed, a dental crown is recommended by Dr. Pollard to support and protect the tooth. A tooth may be cracked by trauma, excessive bite force or the weakening of the tooth due to decay. Minor cracks are restored with a full coverage dental crown. Serious cracks causing significant discomfort will require a root canal to relieve your pain, and a crown to ensure the treated tooth does not fracture further.

Dental crowns can be used to restore the appearance of your tooth. Anterior teeth with large fillings and/or fractures are often restored to their previous form and function with full ceramic crowns. At Bogey Hills Dental all anterior crowns are shade matched with custom shading at Bookout Laboratory in St. Charles. This allows for your crown to perfectly match your natural teeth and be completely unnoticeable to the untrained eye.

In the past, we used to rely on metal crowns in posterior where the crown was subjected to heavy bite forces. Although these crowns were durable, they were noticeable and extremely unattractive. In order to solve that problem, porcelain fused to metal (PFM) crowns were developed by our labs. Although these crowns are still being used, they lack durability as the porcelain often chips away from the metal. The future of dentistry is here with zirconia crowns, as they are as strong as metal, but have the beauty of porcelain. These crowns can be used anywhere in the mouth with great long term success.