Crown and Bridge

Crown

Where a tooth requires complete coverage of itself for certain reasons or where a previous crown has been damaged and a new one is required, we have our laboratory manufacture these in a week. They can be made of gold or porcelain fused to white gold or the latest all porcelain.

In the back teeth in most instances where there is no seeing the crowns gold is of preference under certain circumstances and will sustain all pressures placed on it. Porcelain fused to white gold and the all porcelain is the preference for those positions where other will see them.

Making a crown:

  1. Using our computerised shade taker we ascertain the colour/shade of the surrounding teeth and note this
     
  2. The upper and lower jaws have impressions made so as we have a record of the bite and shape of teeth etc. and 2 study models are made
     
  3. Our technicians then proceed to make mock ups of the teeth we are going to prepare and we make moulds of these
     
  4. The patient comes in and we then proceed with the appointment .The tooth/teeth are prepared an impression of the relevant tooth/teeth taken and then a temporary tooth/teeth made for the patient to wear while the crowns are being made by our technician. In this way the patient will see what the shape and position of the new tooth/teeth will be from the use of the mock-ups
     
  5. After a week the crowns are returned and the patient returns to have the crowns permanently cemented into their positions.

Bridge

A bridge is where teeth adjacent to a space (missing tooth/teeth) are used to support a permanent placement of the missing tooth/teeth.

The procedure is as for the crown and the result is the replacement of the missing teeth with a permanent fixture, it cannot be removed. These can be made in either all porcelain or porcelain fused to metal depending on the surrounding factors around the missing tooth/teeth.

Finally another type of bridge, which can be made, is the "Maryland" or "Rochette" bridge. This kind of bridge is very particular to certain situations as it is simply stuck to the back of the adjacent teeth to the gap, therefore there is no damage to the adjacent teeth, however there is limited situations where this can be used successfully long term.