Even if you usually take care of your teeth, there’s a chance they’ll suffer decay or damage. For instance, you might get a cavity from plaque and tartar buildup if you slack on your oral hygiene regimen. On the other hand, you may experience a tooth chip or crack due to an injury. Either way, you should consider dental crowns in such situations. Dental crowns in Louetta from The Castleberry Center would help your injured teeth look and feel great. To learn more about what they can do, just keep reading or call our office!
What Is a Dental Crown?
A dental crown is a sort of “cap” dentists place over a weakened tooth. It protects, covers, and restores the treated area by covering it with durable, enamel-colored material.
Given its effects, the best candidates for a dental crown tend to have the following:
A severely worn down or broken tooth
Cavities that a filling can’t treat
A tooth (or teeth) that just underwent a root canal
Severely discolored or misshapen teeth
A weak smile that needs extra support to prevent fracturing
Our office will first perform an oral exam to ensure a crown treatment is right for you. That way, we’ll have a sense of your unique dental situation.
The Dental Crown Process
In general, getting a dental crown takes a few visits. These are made up of three major steps: consultation, prep work, and the final placement.
At the consultation, you’ll discuss your treatment ideas with Dr. Castleberry. In particular, you’ll have a chance to bring up your smile goals, medical history, and procedure-related questions. Doing so will allow our team to see how best to meet your needs.
After the consult, our office will prep your tooth for its crown. This work involves removing bits of enamel, thus ensuring the prosthetic sits securely. We’ll then take a dental impression for a local lab, which will use that model to craft your final restoration. This crafting takes time, though, so you’ll wear a temporary crown for a while.
Once the permanent crown is done, you’ll return to our office for the placement. Then, we’ll polish the prosthetic and make final adjustments.
The Benefits of Getting a Dental Crown
If you don’t treat it, a damaged tooth will contract worse problems over time. Fortunately, a dental crown can stave off those issues and provide benefits like:
A Great-Looking Smile: Our dental crowns use tooth-colored porcelain. As a result, they blend seamlessly with the rest of your smile.
Tooth Protection: Since it covers a tooth’s damaged area, a crown protects your pearly white from harm. Consequently, it prevents possible infection and the need for a later root canal.
Versatility: Crowns can treat all sorts of tooth damage – tooth decay, cavities, dental injury, and more.
Long-Lasting Results: If you care for it by brushing and flossing, a dental crown can last 15 years or more.
Understanding the Cost of Dental Crowns
Learning that you need a dental crown, whether that’s due to unexpected oral damage or to help support a tooth that’s already been treated, can be overwhelming, especially if you’re considering the cost. Before our team is able to determine how much your restoration will be, Dr. Castleberry will complete a thorough oral examination and walk you through all of your options, like what materials your crown can be made from. Based on your smile goals and unique case, we’ll provide you with a detailed cost estimate so you know what to expect financially.
Factors That Affect the Cost of Dental Crowns
There are three different factors that can impact the cost of your restoration, including:
Whether you require a preliminary treatment, like root canal therapy or a cavity filling. These additional procedures will incur separate costs.
The type of material that your dental crown will be crafted from. Dr. Castleberry uses high-quality materials and often recommends natural-looking ceramic or porcelain for a more esthetically pleasing appearance.
If the crown will be used to replace a missing tooth, you’ll also require dental implant surgery.
Does Dental Insurance Cover Dental Crowns?
Most dental insurance plans cover at least a portion of the cost of restorations like dental crowns. At The Castleberry Center Family & Cosmetic Dentistry, we proudly accept all PPO dental insurance plans and military insurance plans, as well as Medicaid and CHIP. For a majority of these plans, insurance providers typically pay about 50% of the cost of the restoration, but if you’re concerned, you can contact your insurance company ahead of time to review your policy.
Options for Making Dental Crowns Affordable
Our team is happy to file insurance claims for our patients with PPO plans to maximize their benefits, but we also offer additional financing for those who are underinsured or uninsured. We work with CareCredit, Lending Club, and United Medical Credit to provide patients with easy-to-manage monthly payment plans at little-to-no interest. That way, you can fit the cost of your treatment into your monthly budget.
For those interested in using dental crowns to replace missing teeth, we also offer free dental implant consultations as well as a single dental implant placement special starting at $1,595! To take advantage of these additional payment methods and specials, don’t hesitate to contact our office today.
Dental Crowns FAQs
Finding out that you need a dental crown is likely to bring all kinds of questions to mind. We want you to feel like you know what to expect during the process and what having a crown will be like. If you’re interested in learning more about crowns, we encourage you to get in touch with us today. Before you do, though, check the FAQs below; they cover a few questions that many patients tend to have about this topic.
What Happens If You Wait Too Long to Get a Dental Crown?
If we’re recommending a dental crown, it’s likely because the tooth is significantly injured or decayed. Putting off the procedure is a risky decision; the longer the tooth stays unprotected, the more likely it is to suffer additional damage due to the forces of biting and chewing. Additionally, the tooth will be left vulnerable to decay-causing bacteria. In the worst-case scenario, a tooth that could have been saved might end up having to be removed. We thus recommend that you get a crown shortly after being told that you need one.
Does It Hurt to Get a Dental Crown?
A small amount of enamel needs to be taken off the tooth receiving the dental crown. Your mouth will be numbed for this part of the process, so there shouldn’t be any discomfort. The tooth may feel unusually sensitive for a few days, so you’ll need to take care of it. Pain relievers like ibuprofen can sometimes help.
As for crown placement, numbing the tooth may or may not be necessary (though you can always tell us if you’d like to be numbed). Again, you might experience some sensitivity afterward, although it will usually be to a lesser extent. If it seems like your discomfort is getting worse, call us immediately.
Do Dental Crowns Feel Natural?
Crowns are made to feel natural in more ways than one. They are customized so that they fit perfectly on your tooth without feeling too bulky. Your crown might feel slightly different compared to your other teeth when you touch it with your tongue, but other than that it will be so comfortable that you likely won’t even notice it much of the time. And since it will be able to withstand biting and chewing just as well as your natural teeth can, you can use your crown to eat all kinds of foods without it feeling too odd.
How Do You Know When a Dental Crown Needs to Be Replaced?
You might need a new crown soon if:
Your current crown has started to come loose.
Your current crown has become chipped or stained.
The tooth that the current crown is covering is in pain.
You can schedule an appointment at our office so that our team can evaluate your crown. If we find that it has indeed reached the end of its lifespan, we can explain what steps you’ll need to take to have a new one made.
The Castleberry Center Family & Cosmetic Dentistry
