This is a follow up to the article I posted called Crown it, yes crown it.

Dental crowns which are commonly named as ‘caps’ basically function as protective coverings for teeth. Whenever your teeth undergo decay with major loss of sound tooth structure, crowns strengthen and protect the remaining tooth structure. Crowns can be manufactured from different types of restorative materials such as full porcelain crowns, porcelain fused to metal crowns and the full metal crowns depending upon the condition, esthetic considerations and functional requirements of the tooth.

Crowns are most often placed in cases of the replacement of previously failed restorations and when a tooth undergoes root canal treatment. Both these conditions involve the loss of sound tooth structure thus weakening the remaining tooth material. Under such circumstances, crowns play the role of a protective shield against chewing forces.

Some of the most common indications for the placement of dental crowns are,

• Presentation of badly broken down tooth involving most of the occlusal (chewing) surface,
• Tooth damaged by primary trauma where a large part is broken down leaving sufficient structure to support a dental crown,
• Tooth wear caused by acids other than that produced by bacteria (erosion),
• Mechanical tooth wear caused by traumatic tooth to tooth contact (attrition),
• Mechanical tooth wear caused by external forces such as vigorous tooth brushing trauma (abrasion),
• Tooth wear caused by Para functional and psychological habits resulting from night grinding of teeth such as bruxism,
• Used for correction of occlusion of teeth,
• For esthetic reasons to mask the discoloration of front teeth,
• As part of another restoration after the root canal treatment procedures where the original tooth structure becomes weaker and more brittle,
• For the correction of shape, size and angulation of teeth,
• In case of bridge formation, the adjacent teeth are grinded and covered by crowns to support the overall bridge structure.