Dental Crowns & Bridges

Repairing your Smile with Dental Crowns and Dental Bridges

You can lose your confidence when losing or damaging a tooth! You may not want to smile, might cover your mouth, and even eating can become difficult.

For Damaged Teeth: Dental Crowns

Damage to an individual tooth can happen for any number of reasons. Decay, advanced periodontal disease, trauma, or wear due to teeth grinding and age can all be factors. As dental care professionals, we always want to maintain the integrity of your natural teeth and only extract a tooth when necessary, for which a crown is a great solution!

A crown is an artificial tooth, generally made from ceramic. The ceramic material adds strength, stability, functionality, and protection to the non-damaged portion of the tooth. We reduce the size of your damaged tooth in order to make room. We start by numbing the area of your damaged tooth. Once you’re comfortable and able to relax, we’ll begin removing part of your tooth to make it the perfect size for your crown.

Traditionally, the next step in creating your crown is to take an impression of your mouth. A dental lab will use this unique impression to build your crown. With advances in technology, we are able to create a completely digital model of your mouth which we send directly to the lab! Our amazing iTero intra oral scanner produces the most precise model of your teeth in the industry, meaning that your crown will fit better, look more natural, and perform more like a natural tooth!

We create the digital model in real-time, and can make adjustments if necessary to ensure the perfect image! You won’t have to have a mouth full of impression material with this amazing technology, and you can see the model of your teeth instantly!

After a couple of weeks for the lab to build from your impression, we’ll have you back for a second appointment in which we’ll permanently attach your new crown. You’ll be amazed at the quality and performance of your newly restored tooth!

For Missing Teeth: Dental Bridges

When you lose a tooth, a chain reaction of damage can occur. As time passes, bone that held the missing tooth shrinks. This means that the neighboring teeth will lose some of the bone that stabilizes them. When this happens, those teeth can begin to loosen, as well as shift out of position to fill the gap left behind.

To protect your teeth and maintain your bite, something needs to take place of the missing tooth. This is the role that bridges fill. A bridge is an attachment of an artificial tooth to two crowns. There is a reduction in size to the teeth next to the open space left by your lost tooth. The reduction allows for crowning of the teeth. Using our advanced iTero scanner, we take a digital impression of your mouth and send it to the lab to have them build your bridge.

Just like with a crown, it will take a couple weeks for your bridge to be constructed. We’ll have you back for a second appointment, where we’ll permanently attach your bridge!

Dental Crowns & Bridges in Shorewood IL

Both dental crowns and dental bridges help restore, preserve, and protect your oral health. If you want to find out if either of these restorations are right for you, call our Shorewood, IL, dentist office today at (815) 725-5991. You can also schedule an appointment using our online form. We look forward to hearing from you!