Dental Crowns 101: What they are and why you need them?

Dental crowns are commonly placed to treat various issues in dentistry. If your dentist recommends a crown for one or more of your teeth, it's important that you understand what they are, how they help, and how to best look after them.

What are dental crowns?

A dental crown is a custom made tooth-shaped cap which covers the entire tooth’s surface – not just the top of it. It is essentially a hollow tooth that sits over your existing tooth, fitting like a glove and looking just like a natural tooth.

Once your dentist has placed your custom made crown, it will look, feel, and work just like a normal tooth, so you will quickly forget that it's there.

At Adelaide Smile Centre, we provide our patients with same-day crowns, using CEREC (Ceramic Reconstruction) technology. This technology allows your dentist to prepare and scan the tooth to be crowned, then electronically send the scan to our in-house CEREC milling machine which will produce the custom made crown in one visit. This one appointment will take 60-90 minutes. To find out more about CEREC, please visit www.onlyonevisit.com.

Additionally, when one or more teeth have been lost, a dental bridge can be placed to fill the gap. The missing teeth are replaced by individual crowns which are also anchored by crowns on existing healthy teeth at each end of the gap.

Why might you need a dental crown?

Crowns need to be placed for many reasons. Generally, a crown is used when a tooth is damaged in some way, but can still be saved. The crown will be placed on this tooth to make it fully functional, therefore restoring its size, shape, strength and appearance.

Common reasons for requiring a dental crown include:

- after root canal treatment

- large multi-surface restorations

- broken teeth and loss of tooth structure

- brittle or prone to fracture

- hairline fractures

How do you look after a dental crown?

A dental crown can last a lifetime. However, you need to look after it as best you can to ensure its longevity.

You can brush and floss around your crown the same way as you would your natural teeth. This means brushing gently twice a day and flossing to remove any plaque and food debris in between. You will also need to maintain regular dental visits, during which your care provider will assess the crown to ensure it’s still in good condition.

For further information or to book an appointment, please contact our friendly Front Office Coordinators on 8347 2222.

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New team member 2022

By null • December 7, 2021

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Night Guards

By null • November 9, 2021

Grinding during our sleep is a common issue, whether we realise it or not. However, when the grinding becomes excessive or forceful, this can cause impacting damage to your dental health. Wearing a nightguard is the most effective way to protect your teeth. A nightguard is a mouth piece that is worn on the top teeth during your sleep to help with grinding and clenching. The guard acts as a shield between your top and bottom teeth, which prevents chipping and wearing of your teeth and strain to your jaw muscles. At Adelaide Smile Centre, we can make custom-fitted nightguards. The benefits of a custom nightguard over an over-the-counter product is that it will have a more accurate fit, durable, won’t fall out and will last longer over the years. Our dental team will take an impression of your teeth and have it manufactured in a lab just for you. Too see if a nightguard is appropriate for you, contact us at Adelaide Smile Centre and we’ll be happy to help you out.

Children's Day

By null • September 20, 2021

Children’s Day! Children’s day is back! Unfortunately, due to the COVID – 19 pandemic we were unable to host children’s day in 2020. However, we thrilled to announce Children’s Day is making a comeback! What’s Children’s Day? Glad you asked! A couple times throughout the year our wonderful staff members choose a day to focus on children’s oral health and teach the key importance of taking care of their teeth. Including, the best techniques for brushing, how often to brush good & bad food/ drinks for their teeth. We like to show how dentistry can be fun! Each children’s day we pick a different theme which we decorate the practice with images and balloons. Our staff members dress up and ask the kids to bring along their best costumes! At the end of their appointment, we provide a goodie bag which includes tooth brushes, tooth paste, stickers, brushing charts/ games and a little toy. Come join us at our next scheduled children’s day on 7 th October 2021 and 28 th April 2022! To find out more or to secure your spot please call our friendly staff members on 08 8347 2222 😊