Porcelain Crowns

Back before the days of bonding technology, dental crowns nearly always needed to be made with a metal foundation. Today, we can make them out of pure porcelain or other ceramics. There are still occasions on the back teeth when the durability of a metal foundation in the crown makes it the restoration of choice. But when it shows prominently in your smile, wouldn’t you rather have one that looks as natural as possible?

The porcelain crown is needed when a tooth is badly broken down – there are existing large fillings or a large area of tooth decay, because a filling isn’t strong enough. And in the front of the mouth, you will want a porcelain crown that looks exactly like a tooth. If done by the specialist, it will be very difficult for people to tell that it isn’t real. For information on locating an expert cosmetic dentist in your area, please see our cosmetic dentist referral page.

All-porcelain dental crowns provide the best natural color match than any other crown type and may be more suitable for people with metal allergies.

Different types of all-ceramic dental crowns

The Cerec crown is merely a variation of all-porcelain. It is made out of all ceramic, but rather than being made by a laboratory technician, it is milled by a computer in the dentist’s office. They have some esthetic limitations in the hands of all but the most artistic of dentists.

Empress crowns are also a variation of all-porcelain which uses the Empress pressed ceramic material. Other ceramic materials are Procera, In-Ceram, zirconia, and feldspathic porcelain. In order to chieve perfect esthetic results, especially in upper anterior area, all-porcelain crowns are usually used to brighten and restoring the smile!