What Happens When You Get a Crown on Your Tooth?

What Happens When You Get a Crown on Your Tooth?

Apr 01, 2023

Since their invention a few decades ago, dental crowns in Houston have been the go-to option for anyone who needs to treat severely damaged teeth. Crowns are quite a common treatment since they are versatile and solve many dental issues, such as chipped, cracked, fractured, and decayed teeth.

Besides the functional issues that affect teeth, crowns can also revamp your dental aesthetics, especially if you go for porcelain crowns.

Crowns that our dentist on Bissonnet Street offers are made from various materials. Therefore, you can expect each one to have pros and cons. More so, their lifespans will differ. However, the lifespan of your dental crowns can be determined by various factors.

Without further ado, let’s get acquainted with dental crowns.

Crowns, At a Glance

You will come across dental crowns being referred to as dental caps. That’s an alternative name for these versatile dental prosthetics. In a nutshell, dental crowns near you are dental prosthetics that our dentist places over a severely damaged or weak tooth to enhance its appearance and restore its function.

For instance, if your tooth has severe decay, your next best option will be tooth extraction. However, if you come to our offices, our dentist near you will place a crown over the tooth to preserve the tooth, which would otherwise be useless.

In other words, you can expect the dental crown to extend the lifespan of a damaged tooth. If your tooth isn’t treated, it will deteriorate, and tooth loss will be inevitable.

Sadly, dental crowns have their own clock. So, you can expect them to serve you for a specific amount of time. Before we check out the lifespan of dental crowns, let’s explore the factors that influence their lifespan.

What Factors Influence the Lifespan of Dental Crowns?

Several factors come into play when considering your dental crown’s lifespan.

Some of them are:

  • The type of material used to fabricate the crown
  • Whether you have bruxism (compulsive habit of grinding teeth)
  • The location of the damaged tooth in the mouth
  • Your oral hygiene standard
  • The amount of crown that will show when you smile

So, How Long Do Dental Crowns Last?

As wonderful as dental crowns may be, they were designed to serve you for a limited amount of time. But as you have witnessed from the list above, their lifespan depends on the combination of the above factors.

Most crowns will serve you for about a decade, but you must consider the above factors. You can expect your crown to breeze through and get to a decade when your dental hygiene is wanting. At the same time, dental crowns might serve you as little as five years or less, depending on how you care for them.

On the other hand, the stronger the material used to fabricate the crown, the longer the crown will last. For instance, ceramic crowns have unmatched beauty but will not outlast a porcelain-fused-to-metal crown. The metal part of the porcelain-fused-to-metal crown makes it sturdier.

Crowns made from metal such as gold or silver will also last longer since they are durable and can withstand the chewing force of the back teeth.

What Can You Do to Lengthen the Lifespan of Your Crowns?

You cannot expect your oral health to be tip-top if you don’t practice proper oral hygiene every day. Proper dental hygiene is your best defense against gum disease and tooth decay.

Tooth decay is a great risk to the integrity of your crown since it can attack the tooth underneath the crown. The crown will not stay in place when the tooth’s structure is compromised. That means the tooth has to be removed.

Check your oral habits, such as teeth grinding and biting hard objects like ice. These habits will shorten the lifespan of your crowns and your teeth.

Is Getting a Crown Painful?

Getting a dental crown is a process that needs two separate dental visits. At your first dental appointment, our dentist will check the state of your teeth and discuss your options. Then, you will receive a local anesthetic to numb the area before removing the damaged area of the tooth. Your tooth will be reshaped to create room for the crown. Impressions of the tooth will be taken to aid in creating the crown.

You will receive a temporary crown, and then you will come back when the crown is ready. When you return, our dentist will remove the temporary crown and then use dental cement to fix the permanent crown. Just like that, you have a new crown!

So, the process is not painful since our dentist will use local anesthesia to ensure you don’t feel any pain.

The bottom line is that crowns will help save your teeth. Talk to our dentist at Mi Casa Dental about your dental issues. Contact us today.

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