Choosing a Dental Crown

Dental crowns are applied to strengthen a weak, decayed or fractured tooth. Dental crowns can also cover dental implants. When a broken or decayed tooth does not have enough of healthy structure to support a filling, you may need a dental crown. Dental crowns can be made of different materials.

Let us now look at the different categories of dental crowns and also the costs of dental crowns in India, Mexico, Costa Rica and other countries abroad.

Sometimes the tooth may be in a very bad condition of decay/ infection. In this situation you will need root canal treatment before the dental crown. A dental crown is an irreversible tooth modification, as placing a crown needs removal of the tooth enamel and some of the tooth structure.

Dental crowns can be broadly differentiated as metal-based and metal-free types.

Metallic Dental Crowns - the Strongest of Them All

Metal dental crowns are often called gold crowns or full gold crowns (FGC). However gold is not the only material in metal dental crowns. Different alloys of gold, platinum, palladium, silver, copper, nickel, chromium and tin are also used. Gold, platinum and palladium make good choices for their anti-corrosive resilient properties.

Benefits of Gold Dental Crowns:

• They can withstand biting and chewing forces
• Gold dental crowns are resistant to chip and wear
• Long lasting
• Gold crowns can be thinner than non-metallic crowns, so you need to remove only the minimum quantity of original tooth structure

Drawbacks of Gold Dental Crowns:

Metallic dental crowns don’t suit visible tooth for esthetic reasons

Gold dental crowns are excellent for back of the mouth teeth.

Add Shine to Your Smile with Porcelain Dental Crowns

Porcelain dental crowns are ideal for front teeth due to their natural teeth color. Cosmetic dentistry has wide application for porcelain dental crowns.

Advantages of porcelain dental crowns:

• Porcelain dental crowns have natural tooth color
• They suit people who are allergic to metals

Drawbacks of porcelain crowns:

• Porcelain is not as resilient as metals and is prone to chipping.
• Porcelain crowns wear against opposing teeth more than gold crowns.

Porcelain Fused-to-Metal Dental Crowns

Porcelain fused-to-metal crowns combine the esthetic benefits of a porcelain outer side with the strength of a metal in the inner portion. Porcelain fused to metal crowns may be fitted to either front or back teeth.

Advantages of porcelain fused-to-metal crowns:

• They offer more strength than all-porcelain dental crowns.
• Porcelain-with-metal crowns are the next option when it comes to resemblance to natural teeth.

Disadvantages of porcelain fused-to-metal crowns:

• The porcelain part is still prone to breakage, like all-porcelain crowns.
• The metallic portion inside makes the tooth look opaque.
• When the gums recede due to aging, the inner metallic portion starts showing a dark shadow near the gum line.

Tooth Crowns with FDA-Approval

In USA, all materials used in dental crowns and implants must get approved by the FDA. In recent times, some imported dental crown materials were found to have unsafe amounts of lead. Patients are therefore advised to check with their dental clinic if they are using FDA approved material.

Affordable Dental Crowns Abroad in Mexico, Costa Rica, and India

The costs of dental crowns range between $800 and $1,200 per tooth in the USA. However your total expenditure varies according to the material, requirement of other treatments along with the crown, and the location of the dental clinic. As a rule you can expect porcelain to cost more, as time and skill requirements are more for them. If your dental crown is placed for medical reasons, dental insurance may cover part of the costs. Dental insurances do not usually cover cosmetic dentistry costs.

Dental crowns cost much less in countries like Mexico, Costa Rica, and India. Costs of dental implants, root canal treatments and dental crowns in these countries are 50-60% lower than rates in the UK or US. However lower costs do not mean lower quality of treatment. Cosmetic dentists in Mexico, Costa Rica and India are as highly qualified and experienced as highly successful dental experts in USA. Many of them are using technologies like CAD and CAM (computer-aided design/ manufacturing), so you can expect to avail the benefits of the same cutting-edge technologies as you see in USA and UK.

Dentist in Mexico
Mexico might be one of the places to look for low cost dental crowns.