A dental crown is essentially like a helmet for your tooth. They look like real teeth and they’re glued on top of your actual tooth. That way when you’re chewing we don’t have to worry about the weakened tooth structure that’s underneath that crown breaking.
A dental bridge is a good option for people who are looking to replace a missing tooth, especially if the teeth next to that missing space are not in the best shape. We’re able to put crowns on those teeth and attach to those crowns would be another tooth that would replace the missing space. So when determining if a tooth needs a dental crown versus a filling, we’re looking at a couple of things.
The main reason why you would do a crown versus a filling is if the overall structural integrity of the tooth is compromised severely. If 75% of the tooth structure is compromised, at that point a filling would not protect the tooth enough and in that case we would need to cover the entire tooth with a crown. Dental crowns will last longer than dental fillings.
The crown covers the entire tooth and it’s one uniform material. Dental fillings are a little bit different. They’re bonded or adhere to the tooth structure and as time goes on they’re not as strong.
They’ll break more easily.
