Your best smile faded long ago. Can you restore it to full health and great aesthetics? The answer is yes when you come to Total Dental Care in Pekin, IL. Your dentist, Dr. Stephen Dickey, offers same-day porcelain crowns to restore damaged, decayed or infected teeth, bringing them back to life and getting your smile back on track. Receiving a dental crown is easy these days. Here's how it all works.
What is a dental crown?
A crown is a tooth-shaped jacket of premiere-grade ceramic. Tooth-colored, durable and fully covering a tooth above the gum line, a dental crown protects remaining tooth structure and helps the patient keep the tooth healthy and strong indefinitely. An in-office examination and X-rays tell your Pekin dentist if a crown is the right option for you.
What is the treatment like?
Most crown treatments involve a single tooth which has an odd shape, large crack or chip, multiple fillings or deep decay. Some procedures, however, involve root canal therapy in which the dentist removes diseased interior pulp, seals the tooth and then crowns it. Crowns also restore dental implants, today's tooth replacements of choice, and anchor fixed bridgework for patients missing one, two or more adjoining teeth.
All crown procedures involve removal of damaged enamel (done under local anesthetic) and a shaping of the remaining tooth structure so the dental crown fits properly. After this preparation, Dr. Dickey takes oral impressions, digital imprints of tooth shape.
Using this information, he designs and creates the tooth using CAD/CAM software and a chair side milling apparatus. CAD/CAM means Computer-aided Design/Computer-aided Manufacturing. Dr. Dickey tells the machine how to craft your lifelike crown.
Amazingly, the machine does it in about 20 minutes using a solid block of porcelain. When complete, the dentist does some final shaping and shading and bonds the crown over your existing tooth. That's it! You leave the office with a completely functional and beautiful smile.
Your smile is back on track
With a same-day crown from Total Dental Care, your tooth will look good, feel great and last for years. Just brush twice and day and floss daily to remove plaque and its harmful bacteria, and see your dentist every six months for a check-up and hygienic cleaning. To prolong your crown's lifespan, avoid biting hard foods (and non-foods, such as pencil tops and plastic packaging), and wear a bite guard if you're in the habit of clenching and grinding your teeth.
A crown consultation
If you have one or more teeth compromised by decay, fracture or other oral health problem, get to Total Dental Care in Pekin, IL for a consultation with Dr. Stephen Dickey. He'll tell you if crowns are the right restorations for your smile. For existing patients, phone (309) 347-7055, for new patients, contact (309) 857-7580.
