A dental crown is essentially a tooth-shaped covering placed on top of a damaged or missing tooth to protect and restore it. Crowns can be used to restore:
Although crowns are made using a variety of materials such as composite, metal, even gold, porcelain crowns are a popular choice for most people because they resemble the gloss and shine of your natural teeth.
A dental bridge is a restorative dental appliance that acts as a replacement for multiple missing teeth. Bridges can be used for the following purposes:
Bridges are of several types, but the most widely used is the “traditional bridge, which is made of porcelain fused to metal. The bridge consists of two crowns that are anchored to natural teeth or to implants on either side of the gap and have artificial teeth in between (which are also known as pontics).
Crown lengthening is a surgical procedure that involves removing the bone, gum tissue or both to expose more of the tooth’s structure. The procedure is mostly performed for teeth that may have broken at the gum line, or to correct a “gummy” smile. It is also used for decayed teeth. Sometimes, after decay has been removed, a very less of the tooth structure remains above the gum line and cannot support a dental crown or filling. In such cases, crown lengthening is performed to expose more of the tooth structure above the gum.