Crowns, zirconium bridges

Crowns or caps are “covers”, are placed on the teeth and have the morphology of the natural tooth.

They are used mainly in cases where the tooth is “damaged” enough, and its restoration with fillings is not predictable or possible. To apply a crown on a tooth, the tooth should first be prepared (grinded), appropriately by the dentist.

The bridges are used to replace missing teeth. In the most common kinds of bridges it is needed to sharpen the adjacent teeth.

There are four main types of crowns or bridges:

• The metal, which can be made either from precious / semi-precious metal or base metal alloy. Although the durability of the precious metal has been proven over time, nowadays they are used far too little because of their non-aesthetic appearance.
• The metal-acrylic is relatively more economical. Although the functionality is similar to the others, aesthetically are inferior, and decay and discoloration over time is quite a common occurrence, which is why their use is not recommended nowadays.
• The metal-ceramic, which is the most common. The ceramic material (porcelain) covers the outer surface of the structure, while internally there is a metal. Porcelain, although aesthetically resembles the natural enamel of the tooth, is hard enough and prone to fractures if not properly constructed or if not properly adjust the occlusion of the patient.
• The ceramic, which is made entirely of porcelain. For the reason that there is no metal, these structures are more “transparent” than the others, do not create shade on the tooth or the gums and therefore are considered more aesthetic.

Note that there are several types of ceramic restorations and do not all give the same aesthetic image. Moreover, the most aesthetic of these require specialized welding process, which is a challenging process and requires special expertise and thoroughness by the dentist.

Finally, there are restorations of several other newer materials such as composite resin, which indicated sometimes on specific incidents or as temporary solutions until to complete some treatments which are necessary.