Dental Crown Material

Dental crowns are something none of us want, do we? But after a horrible root canal, they are the only hope of saving us from another tooth decay in the same tooth. Some people unfortunately break their teeth. Again, the only saviors are dental crowns. Next to these crowns, the dental crown material is of most importance. Most of us don't want mental as it really doesn't look nice. Imagine opening your mouth to eat or smile and suddenly something sparkles right from within. Naaahhh! But then not everyone is born with a silver spoon and the dental crown cost is also something we have to keep in mind, isn't it? So here is a small list of the materials used for dental crowns, that are available today. You can choose in one of these while getting yourself a dental crown. Have a look!

Different Types of Dental Crown Material

Full Gold Crowns (FGCs)
People say this is the best material for dental crowns. This material consists completely of a sole piece of alloy. The gold crown not only consists of gold but also platinum, silver, palladium, tin and copper. Gold, palladium and platinum are noble materials while silver, copper and tin are base metals. The quality of this material depends highly on the amount of noble content. More the noble content, better the quality of the material. To be called a high noble crown material, the material should consist of at least 60% of noble material. Again, 40% of this should be gold. This parameter for dental care has been set by the American Dental Association.

Porcelain-fused-to-metal Dental Crowns
This material is mostly used for front teeth restorations. A porcelain veneer is fused on the metal shell with the help of a high heat oven. The metal does its job by providing compression on the base while the porcelain makes the crown resemble an original tooth. In most cases, the crowns are bare metal in places that are not visible to the naked eye. Color of the porcelain can be matched with that of the nearby teeth.

Chairside Dental Crowns
This material is a wonderful example of the progress in cosmetic dentistry. This is formed by a method known as CAD/CAM. In this method, computer technology is used to capture a photographic image of the tooth that needs the crown after it has been prepared. This image is photographed after taking into consideration the necessary measurements. The dentist can make changes to this computerized photographed model and then send the information electronically to any local milling machine. This machine then uses diamond burs and mills the restoration from an ingot. After sometime, the restoration comes out of the machine, prepared.

Empress Dental Crowns
This material is a little similar to a lost-wax technique, wherein a hollow investment design is made. However, this is the only similarity you will find. A pressure-injected leucite-reinforced ceramic is then sort of pressed inside the mold. This is done by using a pressable porcelain oven. The entire effect will make you feel as if this restoration has been cast.

In-Ceram Dental Crowns
This material was introduced in 1989 by Vita. The delicate completely ceramic crown was infused with glass to manufacture or produce this material which was thought better than the earlier one. This is also used as a temporary material for dental crowns.

Procera Dental Crowns
This material method is owned by Nobel Biocare and is completely called Procera Allceram. It is a CAD/CAM based method and produces not only crowns but also veneers and dental bridges. The procedure applied here is to overlay the durable or long-lasting ceramic coping of alumina (or even zircona) with Vitadur Alpha porcelain. It was introduced in 1991 and is one of the latest materials.

Now that you know these different types of dental crown material, choose the one you want. Remember, that dental health is of utmost importance. If you take enough care right from the start, you won't have to go through painful surgeries later. If you are feeling any dental crown pain, visit your dentist immediately. According to me, all dental surgeries are painful, however small they might be. So if your dentist has advised you to get a dental crown, get one soon.