With a wide variety of uses, porcelain crowns have known a growing versatility in fixing dental problems that patients may encounter. Besides fixing tooth problems, porcelain crowns can also be used in cosmetic purpose in order to improve the appearance of the teeth.
The track record of porcelain crowns appears to be working in every corner of the world. Previous attachments were made by using a metal-based framework so that the crown could stand the pressure in daily food mastication process. Modern technology has made the metal framework to no longer be a necessity. Full-porcelain crowns are now resistant enough even for molars. However, they have not yet completely replaced porcelain with metal crowns because specialists can find benefits and drawbacks in every model.
Porcelain crowns fused to metal
This type of dental crowns is at the mid-way between the rigid and resistant metal crowns and the more cosmetic and frail porcelain crowns. Depending on the patients case, porcelain fused to metal crowns are made by fusing the metal shell with the porcelain veneer. These crowns can be used both for back and forth teeth because they can withstand daily chewing pressure and they look close to natural.
The disadvantages of the porcelain with metal crowns are also numerous:
*Porcelain is frail; therefore it can break or chip
*The crowns surface can generate wear on the teeth it bites against.
*The metal layer beneath the porcelain can at times be seen like a dark line at the edges
*Porcelain fused with metal crowns is not as good looking as pure porcelain crowns
It is, nevertheless, difficult to maintain the natural aspect of crowned teeth for more than a couple of years so dentists use porcelain crowns fused with metal for front teeth only in a few exceptional cases.
Pure porcelain crowns
Dental ceramic (porcelain) is nowadays strong enough to be considered a self-sustained reliable material for dental crowns. Pure porcelain crowns are more translucent and look the closest to natural teeth, which makes them cosmetically pleasant. However, the overall resistance for this material is weaker than all the other types of crowns.
Dentists consider full-porcelain crowns fit for front teeth, but the recommend other types of dental crowns for molars and back teeth, although each case has its own particularities. The color of the replaced tooth /teeth is matched with the color of the patients natural teeth and thus the result is always a good blend of the fake tooth. This aesthetic detail makes every patient be more confident when smiling or talking. .