Dentistry is a blend of art and science, and nowhere is this more evident than with crowns and bridges. Rupam Khanna, DDS, at San Ramon Family Dental provides her patients in San Ramon, California with beautiful, high-quality crowns and bridges that are as functional as they are beautiful. To learn more about how San Ramon Family Dental can improve your smile with crowns and bridges, call the office or schedule a consultation online today.
A crown is a prosthetic tooth cap that’s permanently affixed to a pre-existing root structure, like a natural tooth root or dental implant. A crown covers up the entirety of your tooth above the gum line and feels and functions just like a natural tooth. Depending on the material used, your crown can even look just like a natural tooth, too.
Crowns serve a variety of functions. They can:
Crowns are also frequently used after a root canal to restore your tooth’s strength and structure.
A bridge is a prosthetic device that replaces a missing tooth. It’s composed of an artificial tooth, called a pontic, with crowns attached to either side. The crowns are sealed to the teeth adjacent to your missing tooth, leaving the pontic to literally “bridge” the space between your teeth.
If your teeth can’t support crowns, there are alternative bridges that can still restore your smile. A cantilever bridge has a crown on just one side, while a Maryland bonded bridge has a pontic that’s held in place by a metal framework that’s sealed to the backside of your adjacent teeth.
By replacing your missing tooth, bridges are beneficial to your smile in a number of ways, such as:
Bridges also help to evenly distribute the force in your bite, which helps to prevent the development of TMJ disorder and excessive wear and tear on your teeth.
First, your dentist prepares your teeth by shaving off some enamel. If you’re getting a crown, the team prepares the tooth that’s going to be crowned. If you’re getting a bridge, they prepare the teeth adjacent to your missing tooth.
Once your teeth are prepared, the dental team takes an impression of your smile. That impression is sent to a lab that fabricates your crown or bridge while you wear a temporary restoration.
When your permanent crown or bridge comes back from the lab, you return to San Ramon Family Dental for another appointment where your dentist seals your crown or bridge in place and finishes restoring your smile.
To learn more about how San Ramon Family Dental can improve your smile with a crown or bridge, call the office or book a visit online.