Cosmetic Dental Crown Procedure Explained

This article will show the full dental crown procedure that can be performed in either your dental office for one appointment visit or to have them fabricated in a dental lab which would make it a two appointment visit. In one appointment visit, first the dentist and dental assistant will pick a shade for the crown. We use something called a shade guide to help crown match the color of the rest of your teeth. The dentist will numb you up so you will feel comfortable and not feel the thing throughout the entire procedure. If the patient has a lower partial denture the dentist will choose to take a scan of the patient’s original dentition before it’s prepped and crowned so they can make an identical crown shape so the partial denture Dentist may also take a scan of the upper teeth, so they have an impression for the occlusion also known as the bite.

Afterward, it’s time to prep the tooth where the decay needs to be drilled out of the tooth. Once all of the decay is removed then dentists will prep the tooth for the crown. They will shave down the tooth into a shape that will allow the crown to be a cover or a cap right on top of it. Next, they will either use a cord to pack around the gums of the tooth or some offices may even use a laser that is actually troughing around the gum areas of the tooth which takes the place of cord packing. Then the dentist might even place a material called ViscoStat around the gums to prevent any bleeding.

Now, dentists will take another impression of the prepped tooth and next they will design the crown. After designing, the crown is ready to be milled and a dental specialist will place a block of ceramic (either porcelain or zirconium) into the milling unit machine that fabricates the ceramic block into a crown to cap your tooth. The full milling process time usually depends on the unit in the black material used.

If your dentist does mill their own crowns in the office you can always ask if it’s okay for you to watch the process. Sometimes they’ll have the milling unit in their lab or a different room from where the mouth prep was happening so if you’re interested in watching your crown being milled it can’t hurt to ask but if you have no interest no problem. This is some extra downtime for you to relax your jaw and just kind of hang out until the crown fabrication is complete. After the crown is milled, they will most likely steam it and then bring it back to you for a fit test. Sometimes depending on the material of the block, they will need to stain it, glaze it and put it into a furnace to harden it, and then bring it back to you for cementation to cement it on your tooth.

The last step before physically capping the crown onto the tooth is that the crown needs to be prepared by etching it, rinsing it, and priming it. So, then both the crown and the tooth are prepared and the crown can be capped onto the tooth. The dentist also might use a brush to remove residual bonding material around the crown before they harden it. Then they will harden it and remove any residual hardened pieces of bonding material. Interested in types of dental crowns? Check our article!

That’s it, a same-day crown is complete! We in Hidden Valley Smiles sincerely hope this article helped you and if you want more teeth talk and dental crown procedure information you can visit our website!  Our office is located in Bel-Red which is called after its location between the cities of Bellevue and Redmond.