The combination of modern porcelain with digital technology
now allows us to provide strong, excellent fitting, and beautiful crowns.
Crowns are often needed when a tooth has been broken down
due to decay or trauma, has had a root canal, or has a deep crack. This tried
and true technique has been a part of dentistry for more than a century.
Traditionally, crowns were made of gold alloy, all porcelain, or a combination
of the two. Gold crowns have long been the “Gold Standard” as this technique
allowed for excellent fit, very conservative removal of tooth structure (as little
as a half a millimeter), and long lasting restorations. Modern esthetic
expectations have made porcelain crowns more popular. Unfortunately, porcelain
crowns demand much more aggressive tooth structure removal to make room for the
porcelain; four times as much as gold crowns. Traditional porcelain crowns are
also prone to fracture.
Modern technology has resulted in a solution that achieves
the conservative durability gold with the beauty of porcelain. Solid zirconia porcelain
crowns need minimal tooth structure removal and are virtually unbreakable.
These hi-tech restorations are digitally designed and milled from a sold block
of porcelain. At the Baltimore Center for Laser Dentistry we digitally scan the
tooth being crowned resulting in a much more accurate impression than the
traditional putty impression. This digital impression is emailed to the lab where
the technician uses computers to design and make the crown.
