If you have a bad habit of nervously nibbling on pens and pencils or using your teeth as improvised tools, you might easily suffer a chip on one of your front teeth. When this happens, it can alter your appearance, hamper your self-esteem, and even invite a new area of tooth decay to form.
Sometimes the dentists at Buhler Dental Arts’s Spanish Fork, Utah clinic might be able to repair a small chip with a standard composite filling. This special dental-grade plastic can be shaded to perfectly match the surrounding tooth enamel.
Unfortunately, a large chip or damaged enamel in a critical area of the tooth might call for a total crown restoration. This is essentially a replica of the entire tooth enamel layer composed of either porcelain, gold, or a base metal alloy. It usually takes two separate appointments to fully install a crown.
Your Buhler Dental Arts dentist will start the restoration process by removing the entire tooth enamel layer form an abutment out of the inner core of the tooth. This will eventually anchor the crown in your mouth. We will make an impression of the area, which will be sent to a dental lab where your new porcelain crown will be made.
A temporary crown will be secured over the abutment. It’s important to keep in mind that this hard plastic cap is not a fully functional tooth. The only function it serves is to protect the sensitive abutment within.
You will need to return to our clinic for a brief second appointment when your new crown is ready. The temporary crown will be carefully removed and your new porcelain crown will be secured onto the abutment with a special dental adhesive.
If you live in Spanish Fork, Utah and you have suffered a badly chipped tooth, you should call 801-794-9905 to have it examined and repaired at Buhler Dental Arts’s clinic.