Crowns and Bridges Crowns and Bridges are treatments which
restore broken or missing teeth. If you require any restoration
to your teeth your dentist will advise you which treatments are
best, based on your personal requirements. Everyone has heard of
having teeth crowned or capped. Put simply a crown is a cap or
cup of reinforcing material which is placed around a tooth to
strengthen it and improve its appearance. Heavily-filled teeth
may have a poor prognosis if the underlying tooth is very weak.
Crowns provide the ideal way to both strengthen and improve the
appearance of heavily filled and week teeth and can be expected
to last up to 20 years in most circumstances. In the front of
the mouth crowns are usually made of porcelain where aesthetics
are extremely important; or porcelain bonded to precious metal
where extra strength is required. In the back of the mouth,
where strength is paramount, crowns can be made of gold if
appearance is not a concern or more normally of porcelain bonded
to metal for a comb