3 Ways Dental Crowns Can Help Your Smile Besides Fixing a Chipped Tooth

Dental crowns are thin, artificial tooth shells that fit down over a natural tooth to cover defects and to better protect the tooth. One common use of dental crowns is to cover a chip in the tooth that is exposing the canal and pulp, which puts the tooth at risk of infection and decay. But there are other ways that the use of a dental crown can help your smile.

Here are a few ways your dentist or cosmetic dentistry specialist can use a dental crown to treat various ailments and cosmetic flaws.

Cover Intrinsic Stains

Dental staining comes in two forms: extrinsic and intrinsic. Extrinsic stains come from food, drink, and nicotine and affect the enamel layer on the outermost layer of the tooth. Extrinsic staining is treated with teeth whitening procedures from a cosmetic dentist.

Intrinsic stains come from certain medicines or genetics. Teeth whitening agents don't work on intrinsic stains. In order to cover the staining, your dentist might opt to use a porcelain dental crown.

Porcelain dental crowns can be tinted to resemble a natural, whitened tooth, and the porcelain also has a natural-looking translucency.

Seal After Root Canal Therapy

Root canal therapy is recommended when you have an infection within the tooth. The procedure involves the dentist opening up your tooth via a drill hole, scraping out the affected pulp, and then rinsing the emptied canal with an antibiotic wash. The hole in the tooth needs to be covered so that oral bacteria doesn't go straight back into the canal. A dental crown is the best way to cover the hole.

A dental crown can also add more protection for the root canal and pulp because the crown essentially forms a second layer of dentin. Your tooth will have a reduced risk of damage and infection entering through the dental crown.

Correct an Over- or Undersized Tooth

Dental crowns require the dentist to shave down the exterior of the natural tooth to make room for the crown and to aid the bonding cement that attaches the crown to the tooth. But your dentist can shave off even more of an oversized tooth before bonding the crown in place.

A dental crown can also potentially correct a tooth that's slightly undersized. Your dentist will still need to lightly shave the tooth but can make the dental crown thicker to make up the difference between the shaved undersized tooth and the normally sized similar teeth in your mouth.

For more information about the advantages of dental crowns, check out http://www.fortcollinsdentist.com and talk to your dentist.