What happens when somebody needs a crown?

When someone needs to have a crown made, we have them come in and we take an initial impression. And then we get the tooth ready for a crown and take another impression, which is called a final impression. After that, we make a temporary for the patient. We send the final impression to the lab, so that the patient gets a custom made crown for the their tooth.

The patient will be in a temporary for about two and a half to three weeks. After the two and a half or three weeks, we will have that crown back from the laboratory and we will put that crown in.

Some of the benefits to having a crown that is made in a lab is that it is custom made for the patients, which means that crown will be the most ideal material for the patient. We tend to use a porcelain material, which is a white tooth material. And for most situations, the crown that we choose is a zirconia type material. And the benefit to that is it is that it is a strong material that can withstand use for a long time.  It’s very, very resistant to any type of breakage just in the construction of the type of porcelain that it is.

Now you do something unique with your choice of labs that a lot of dentists don’t do. Can you tell me about that?

Certainly. I use a lab that is here in the United States. Many labs have the option to send their crowns overseas to have the crowns made outside the country. One thing that I think is very, very important is making sure that my crowns are made here in the United States with materials that are tried and true and tested.

So, that is something that I use. I’ve used this dental lab for about the last ten years. So, it is a lab with a great track record making good quality dental materials. That matters to me and to that discerning patient who needs a crown.