Picture this – you and your family are at the dinner table when one of you asks about everyone’s day. You don’t find yourself interested in anything they are saying until one member tells everyone that they got a dental crown during their dental visit earlier that day. The whole family gasps and asks in unison, “Is that even possible? ”
The idea of getting a dental crown in just one visit sounds appealing, even to the point that it gets everyone’s attention. But is it really possible, and if so, what’s the catch?
First Things First: What Is a Dental Crown?
A dental crown is like a custom-made cap that fits over your existing tooth to protect and restore it as you resume your daily routine of chewing and talking. In general, a dental crown is something that replaces your chipped or broken tooth and that will look and feel like your tooth has never been damaged at all.
Why Would Someone Need a Dental Crown?
There are a lot of reasons; however, a few of these are the reasons why your dentist will recommend you get one:
- A cracked or broken tooth is the most common one, as teeth can crack from biting something hard and even doing contact sports.
- After a root canal, because having this dental procedure will tend to make your tooth a bit more brittle over time,
- A large fillingon the tooth, as there is not much natural tooth left on that crown, and
- Cosmetic reasons, where dental crowns significantly improve the appearance of teeth that are badly discoloured and even shaped irregularly.
The Traditional Way: Two Visits
Initially, getting a dental crown is at least two dental appointments, where the reshaping of the tooth by your dental professional will happen on the first visit. This is usually done by taking a mould of your tooth and putting on a temporary crown before putting in the final one. On the second visit, the permanent crown will be cemented in place, replacing the temporary crown that was fitted during the previous visit.
So, Can You Really Get a Crown in One Visit?
The answer you’ve all been waiting for – yes, you can, and in many cases, it usually happens in one visit. The common term for this is same-day crowns, one of the contributions of modern dental technology to the world, often made through digital scanning and other high-tech dental milling machines to create your dental crown on the spot.
How Does a One-Visit Crown Work?
Dentistry in Canterbury offers same-day dental crowns, and getting this procedure is very straightforward, just like getting your prescription glasses done within minutes.
Digital scanning of your tooth is done after the examination and preparation that your tooth really needs a dental crown. This means that there will be no moulds to be used in this process, as the digital scanner will create a 3D image of your tooth. Digital scanning made the process of having dental crowns immediately after one visit easy, as designing the crown after is easy; within minutes, your dental crown is already in a milling machine, carving it into a block of ceramic, where fitting and cementing it to your tooth will be done immediately after.
What Are the Benefits and Downsides of a One-Visit Crown?
The answer to this question is pretty straightforward as well – and it’s because of convenience. We live in this era where everything needs to be done in a much lesser time as responsibilities keep filling up our schedules; however, you are relatively paying for a larger sum of costs, depending on the process and situation of your oral health.
Because of this, it is still best to check if your tooth damage really needs to undergo same-day crowns and check as well if the technology that your dentist offers includes this process.
A modern dental technology for a modern man.
The most important thing to overall dental health is not the speed, but making sure that the procedure was assessed and examined by your trusted dentist. Having to adjust the fit of the crown and blending it in so that you can still bite and chew properly is something only dental professionals can do.
However, you still need to do your part. With great care of brushing twice a day, flossing, and going to regular dental check-ups, dental crowns can last up to a decade and longer.
Lastly, before getting that dental crown, make sure that you ask your dentist first about the options they can offer you that will best fit your preferences.
