Restoring Teeth & Implants With Dental Crowns

High-Quality Restorations For A Seamless Smile

If you’ve got a damaged tooth or a missing tooth that you’re interested in replacing with a dental implant, a porcelain dental crown from Dr. Diane Pham at Capital Esthetics & Family Dentistry is the best way to restore your smile. We use the latest materials, technology, and techniques to create lifelike, durable, and long-lasting crowns that will fit perfectly with your natural teeth.

What Are Dental Crowns?

A dental crown is a hollow false tooth. Crowns are typically made from a durable porcelain material that looks and feels just like natural enamel. They are designed to fit over a damaged tooth, covering it up all the way down to your gums. Not only does this restore the appearance of the tooth, but it also prevents pain, sensitivity, and other complications like tooth decay and infections.

Implant crowns look similar, but are used to restore missing teeth. Instead of attaching to a natural tooth, implant crowns attach to a metal dental implant. Once in place, the crown replaces the missing tooth and restores your smile.

The Benefits Of Porcelain Crowns

Natural look and feel

Unlike metal crowns, porcelain crowns look and feel just like natural teeth. At Capital Esthetics & Family Dentistry, Dr. Pham will work closely with you while designing your crown to ensure that it looks realistic, feels comfortable, and fits in perfectly alongside your natural teeth. 

Long-lasting protection

Crowns can easily last for 10-15 years or longer with proper oral hygiene, a healthy lifestyle, and regular checkups from Dr. Pham. This means you can smile proudly for years to come!

Stain-resistant

Crowns are much more resistant to stains than your natural enamel. This means you don’t have to worry about things like coffee, tea, berries, or curry staining your new smile. 

No special care needed

Whether it’s a traditional crown or an implant crown, no special care is needed to care for your new tooth. You can treat it just like a natural tooth. Brush twice per day, floss once a day, and make sure you come into our office for a checkup with Dr. Pham every six months. That’s it!

Understanding The Crown Placement Process

We offer both implant crowns and traditional porcelain crowns at our office. While the end results are similar, the process is quite different for each type of crown. Here’s what you need to know:

Traditional crowns

• Preparing your tooth – To begin your treatment, Dr. Pham will clean your mouth and numb your tooth. Then, she will use a dental drill to remove any damaged or decayed tooth material. Next, she will reshape the tooth to prepare for your crown.
• Crown fitting – After she trims your tooth, Dr. Pham will take impressions of it. These will be used by our dental lab partner to create a crown that looks and feels natural and fits perfectly into your smile. It takes about 2-3 weeks for the lab to build your crown, so she will attach a temporary crown to protect your tooth, then send you home.
• Final placement – Once your final crown arrives at Capital Esthetics & Family Dentistry, you’ll come back for one last visit. Dr. Pham will remove your temporary crown and clean up your tooth. Then, she’ll check your porcelain crown to make sure it fits, and make any last-minute adjustments if needed. When everything looks perfect, she’ll bond the crown to your tooth permanently.

Implant crowns

• Implant surgery – First, you’ll see Dr. Pham for implant surgery. During your visit, she will place a small metal post into your gums and jawbone. This will function as an artificial tooth root and support your new dental crown in the future.
• Healing and recovery – It only takes a week or two to heal from surgery, but it will take between 3-6 months for your implant to fully bond with your jawbone tissue. During this time, you’ll visit our office for some follow-ups so that our team can check on your progress.
• Crown fitting – As you heal, Dr. Pham will take impressions of your mouth and use them to begin designing your new tooth. Once she finalizes the design, she’ll send it to our dental lab partner for manufacturing.
• Abutment placement – Once your dental implant has fully healed, you’ll come back to Capital Esthetics & Family Dentistry for your abutment. This is a small piece of metal that will connect the implant to your crown.

Final placement – A few weeks after abutment surgery, you’ll come in for your final appointment. Dr. Pham will check the fit of your implant crown, then attach it to your implant to permanently restore your smile.