Restore Your Smile with Natural Looking Dental Crowns

Placing your custom made dental crown normally requires just two visits to Renton Dental’s Paddington practice. In the first stage, we carefully prepare your tooth for a crown.  We provide you with a temporary crown while the permanent one is being made. At your second visit, we will place your final permanent crown and restore your tooth back to its full function.

From your dentist, you can expect to be informed about:

• Why you need a crown
• The timing of the process
• The treatment process and the product outcome that you expect to receive
• The cost of the crown and treatment deposits payable
• Relevant item numbers to claim a rebate if you have private health insurance
• The reasonable expected outcome of the procedure
• How to care for the crown
• How long it is expected to last and why it may not last the expected duration
• What to do if you have any adverse outcomes

As a patient, you should expect that:

• The process will take time because it is a complex procedure
• You will have two or more appointments; these are for different lengths of time (ie longer time for the preparation appointment and a shorter time for the insert appointment). Each appointment serves a unique purpose and treatment sequence, so appointments cannot be substituted one for the other.
• You will attend these appointments unless you have a valid reason for cancelling or rescheduling – particularly at short notice. We allocate a significant amount of time to ensure you get the absolute best care.
• You may have to pay a treatment deposit at the crown preparation appointment. This is  not claimable from private health funds, but this will be deducted from the balance owing after the health fund rebate has been paid.
• You will need the necessary funds available to pay for the crown at your insertion appointment

How long your dental crown lasts will depend on factors such as your oral hygiene habits, the type of material used, the amount of everyday ‘wear and tear’ the crown receives, and other habits such as biting your fingernails, chewing on ice, or whether you grind your teeth (known as bruxism). On average however, you should be able to enjoy your new dental crowns for around 5 to 15 years.

While your crowned tooth doesn’t generally need any special care, you should remember that your underlying natural tooth is still susceptible to tooth decay and gum disease.In short, look after it like a normal tooth!

As well, be careful not to bite or chew very hard foods such as ice, meat bones, unpopped corn, olive or date pits etc. Just as a natural tooth can crack or break when biting very hard food, a ceramic or porcelain covered crown can chip or break under these circumstances.

Keep up your good oral hygiene habits at home (including brushing carefully morning and night, and flossing each day) and visit us regularly for ongoing preventive dental appointments.

We include an examination of your crown as part of your regular check up appointment to ensure that the bite (occlusion) is still correct and that the crown is not damaged in any way.

It may take a few days to settle in. There may be mild discomfort from the treatment process.
Very few patients have any form of discomfort after a new crown is placed. Most comment that they can’t feel the crown and sometimes they cannot even point out which tooth is the new crown!

We take great care to make sure the tooth pressure is adjusted correctly. If the bite (occlusion) is not meeting properly, the crowned tooth may be under excess pressure when you chew or close your teeth together. This can cause discomfort, pain or aching. The tooth ligaments become stretched and bruised. The constant pressure may cause the pulp of the tooth to become reactive and painful.

Once cemented in place, a crown is ideally intended to stay there for many years.

If necessary, a crown can be removed. However, to minimise trauma to the underlying tooth, the crown will be damaged, usually beyond repair.

During the removal process, it may have to be cut from the tooth, destroying the crown. In most circumstances, a new crown will have to be made if the crown needs to be removed.