Dental Crowns Go High Tech

The use of dental crowns can be traced back as far as dentistry has been performed on individuals. Whether using some of the materials around today or far more basic material from decades and even centuries past, dentists and their predecessors have been able to shore up compromised teeth for many years.

Throughout the history of modern dentistry, dental crowns have been a common solution for a number of various issues that can arise involving the human tooth. Because of this, both the materials used to make them and the technology utilized to implement them have evolved over time to best suit patients’ needs.

Basic dental crowns are essentially solid caps that fit around and over the top of a tooth or other implant. They act to solidify teeth and maintain their health when cavities or other diseases or infections leave them open and vulnerable.

The common crown today is made of porcelain or other reinforced material that is both sturdy to the touch and resistant to the various forces that can besiege the human mouth. Because of the need for them to be resilient and structurally effective over a long period of time, a great deal of time and care is put into the fabrication method of a crown to ensure it is as solid as it can be.

This is often an indirect method that begins with a dentist or other dentistry professional taking an impression of the size and shape of a tooth needed for the area in question. This impression is then used as a model for a crown to be fabricated either through the firing or porcelain, metal casting or other methods that are capable of producing a structurally dependable product.

While this approach is common today, the use of computers to help design dental crowns is growing in popularity. Computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing, also known as CAD/CAM dentistry, utilizes the latest technology to help accurately plan out and create models for the production of these implants.

This computer-aided technology uses many of the same basic principles as earlier approaches, but can oftentimes be more precise and can help produce a crown that can be permanently fitted far sooner than previous models.

Once a diseased portion of a tooth is removed, the computer electronically surveys the remaining area and produces a detailed model of what the appropriate fitting should look like. The implant is then milled almost immediately out of porcelain or other composite materials using the specific dimensions and characteristics determined by the computer, and because these calculations are so exact the implants can often be installed almost immediately.

Because the need for dental crowns and their use can vary greatly by individual, this approach isn’t always necessary or appropriate for all patients. It is, however, a step forward in modern medicine that can only help dentists over the long term.