If you want a smile that's your crowning glory, you may need a crown to cover a tooth and restore it to its normal shape and size. A crown can make your tooth stronger and improve its appearance.

It can cover and support a tooth with a large filling when there isn't enough
tooth left. It can be used to attach a bridge, protect a weak tooth from breaking or restore one that's already broken. A crown is a good way to cover teeth that are discolored or badly shaped. It's also used to cover a dental implant.

If your dentist recommends a crown, it's probably to correct one of these conditions. Your dentist's primary concern, like yours, is helping you keep your teeth healthy and your smile bright literally, your crowning glory.

CROWNS AND BRIDGE TYPES
There are several types of currently used crowns, here some examples.

1. All Porcelain Bonded Crowns:

A. Feldspathic Porcelain: is the traditional porcelain, that many cosmetic dentists feel is the most beautiful porcelain used for Crowns and Veneers. These crowns are made by shaping and stacking the porcelain on a model of the prepared teeth color is added in the porcelain, which is then baked in porcelain oven. These crowns while by far the most aesthetic, tend to be the most technique sensitive and are less desirable on the back teeth.

B. Empress Crowns: Empress while not a true porcelain crown, can be called a ceramic material that is more like a glass. The Empress material is pressed rather than baked unlike a feldspathic porcelain crown and are reinforced pressed Lucite, giving it greater strength and durability. The fit of Empress is precise. However, the color in Empress is mostly baked on the outside after casting. Empress can be very beautiful. Some expert cosmetic dentists prefer Empress Crowns on front teeth while other like the feldspathic porcelain both materials are commonly used for Veneers.

C. Cerac Crowns: are produced in dental offices as well as laboratories using CAD technology. In the dental office they allow the dentist to fabricate all procelain crowns
in about an hour.

2. Porcelain Crowns with a ceramic substrate of Zirconia or Alunina:

A. Procera Crowns: Procera Crowns are produced using CAD technology utilizing either Zirconia or Alumina core on the inside with a porcelain baked onto the outside. This combination results in excellent strength. An advantage of Procera is that it doesn't have to be bonded to the tooth but can be cemented with ordinary crown and bridge cement.

B. The Lava Crowns: Lava is similar to Procera, but the Zirconia CAD/CAM produced ceramic substrate is more translucent rather than an opaque white material, the proprietary pre-blended ceramic exterior is pressed onto it resulting in more translucent crown than that of Procera. The Zirconia is shaded, and then the final esthetics of the crown are achieved in the baked-on outer layer. The Lava crown can also be cemented with traditional techniques. Some of the other brand names that are of this type include In-Ceram, Cercon, and more!

3. Porcelain Crowns fused to a cast metal substrate

A. Porcelain Fused to Gold or Other Metals: Porcelain fused to metal crowns have a nearly natural appearance, subject to two limitations: Because they have a metal substructure, they require the use of an opaquer under the porcelain, which makes it impossible to re-create the translucency of natural teeth. They can also show a dark line at the edge, next to the gum. Dentists try to hide this line under the gum, but sometimes they are unable to do this; and sometimes the line doesn't show when the crown is first placed but shows later, as the gum recedes But porcelain fused to metal is stronger than all porcelain.

B. Captek Crowns: Captek Crowns achieve esthetics that rival all-ceramic restorations. Ceramic material is pressed or fuse to a 22kt gold understructure. The unique gold color of the coping provides a warmer and more life like appearance at the gingival margin. Because the Captek coping is not cast there are no dark oxides on the surface that discolor the porcelain. This makes Captek one of the most esthetic porcelain fused to metal restoration ever developed.

4. All Gold Crowns:

Full-Cast Gold restorations are the standard for long term durability.
Where appearance is not a concern to you, gold could be the best choice. Since the gold metal is very workable, gold crowns have a extremely precise fit. Gold also eliminates the slight possibility of chipping that exists with anything that contains porcelain. For simple longevity, nothing beats gold. Be careful of cheaper alloys, because some of them can provoke a metal allergy.

BRIDGES
If you're missing one or more teeth, you may notice a difference in chewing and speaking. There are options to help restore your smile.

Bridges help maintain the shape of your face, as well as alleviating the stress in your bite by replacing missing teeth. Sometimes called a fixed partial denture, a bridge replaces missing teeth with artificial teeth, looks great, and literally bridges the gap where one or more teeth may have been. The restoration can be made from gold, alloys, porcelain or a combination of these materials and is bonded onto surrounding teeth for support. Unlike a removable bridge, which you can take out and clean, a fixed bridge can only be removed by a dentist

An implant bridge attaches artificial teeth directly to the jaw or under the gum tissue. Depending on which type of bridge your dentist recommends, its success depends on its foundation. So it's very important to keep your remaining teeth healthy and strong.