Menu

Keeping Your Teeth White Between Dental Visits

About Me

Keeping Your Teeth White Between Dental Visits

Taking care of your teeth might seem mundane, but without enough attention, those pearly whites of yours can easily turn tinged and stained. Sure, having your teeth cleaned every few months at your dentist's office is a great start to maintaining a beautiful smile, but it isn't enough to keep each tooth pearly white on an ongoing basis. Now, don't get me wrong – you don't have to spend an arm and a leg on professional maintenance in order to get the results you want. You can use a variety of methods at home, like creating your own whitening mouthwash, that can help to keep you teeth white between dentist visits. Hopefully, the tips and techniques offered on this blog is enough to get you the results that you're after.

What May Happen When You Need to Get a Dental Crown

25 March 2019
 Categories: Dentist, Blog

Dental crowns are used frequently in dentistry to restore cavities, top implants, and improve the appearance of front teeth. Crowns put on your front teeth will be seen every time you smile, so they need to look natural, which is achieved by choosing the right material. Here's what might happen if you get a crown on a front tooth.

Choose the Material and Color

Crowns are made of various materials, but porcelain is usually a good choice for a front tooth. That's because porcelain has luster like real enamel, so it has the most natural appearance of crown materials. The shade of white used to make the crown is permanent, and the dentist matches it to the color of your natural teeth so the crown blends in well. If you want whiter teeth, then your dentist may whiten your natural teeth first so the best shade of white can be chosen for the crown.

Prepare the Tooth for the Crown

Part of your tooth has to be removed to make room for a crown to fit in your mouth. If you have a cavity, then the decayed portion of your tooth is removed as well. This process is done after you've had an anesthetic shot so it isn't painful. Next, the dentist makes an impression of your tooth so the permanent crown can be made. Depending on the services provided by your dentist, the crown might be made immediately in the office or it might be made in a lab, which could take a few weeks.

Put on a Temporary Crown

A temporary crown is made by your dentist for you to wear if you have to wait on the permanent crown to be made. The temporary crown isn't as attractive as a porcelain crown, and it's affixed with temporary cement, so it doesn't have a long life. The temporary crown will be removed in a few weeks when the permanent crown is put on.

Have a Same-Day Crown Put On

If your dentist has the computerized equipment needed to make permanent crowns in the office, then your porcelain crown can be made while you wait. This eliminates the step of having a temporary crown put in. Your permanent crown will be put in after your tooth is prepared for it, and this will eliminate the second visit that's usually required for getting a crown.

A dental crown can change the color and shape of your tooth as well as repair damage and decay. If your tooth has a gap or is an uneven length, the dentist can improve the tooth's appearance when the crown is put on. A crown is an artificial tooth, but it still needs daily care to keep your gums healthy and get rid of plaque and odors. If you take care of the crown, it could last for many years.