Now that the reasons for the crowns has been explained, let’s check out the results. Both teeth were restored with porcelain crowns. Instead of the ‘regular’ porcelain crown, these were different. Most crowns still have a small metal band around their base. This helps the lab technician when he or she is making the crown or some dentists request this metal band because they feel the crown fits better. The only problem is that when recession of the gums happens slowly over time, the metal band will become more obvious. Here’s a better solution. The margin area (where the crown and tooth meet) can be made with ALL porcelain. This looks better longer and has a fantastic fit. Only problem is it costs a little more, but I sure think it’s worth it. Take a look….what do you think??

So let’s look at this situation a little closer. You can see where the crown meets the tooth because there has been some recession of the gum tissue over the many years this crown has been in service. Also, this same area is starting to ‘leak’, that is, bacteria is migrating under the crown and infecting the tooth underneath. The tooth in front of the crown has a large cavity. In fact it’s big enough that you can see the gray ’shadow’ of the decay if you look closely. It was definitely time to fix these teeth.

Here’s a nice case. This patient had a tooth with an old, poorly fit crown. Also, the tooth in front of it had a very large cavity and was going to need a crown. We discussed the situation and decided that crowning them both at the same time was the best option in order to idealize the fit, color match, and bite in this area. Here’s what the teeth looked like beforehand: