Dental Caps and Crowns

When is a Crown needed?

In a situation where there is not enough remaining solid tooth structure after decay and fragile tooth structure is removed, or the tooth has fractured and is now missing important architectural reinforcements, the tooth might very well require an extracoronal restoration: a restoration consisting of a dental material that will exist around the remaining tooth structure to a varying degree.

Restorations that fall into this category include the various types of crowns and onlays, and these can consist of a number of materials as well, including gold, ceramic, or a combination of the two. Ceramic crowns are increasingly being substituted in place of gold crowns for aesthetic and structural reasons.