Crown and Bridge
A dental crown is a tooth-shaped “cap” that is placed over a damaged tooth. Crowns are normally required due to a tooth being cracked from grinding, clenching, being under excessive load or being worn away due to decay or an injury. The cap restores the tooth’s shape, size, strength, and appearance. Often, they are advised by your dental professional when a filling is no longer sufficient to protect and restore the tooth. Crowns can be made from gold, porcelain, resin, and ceramics. At A.L. Dental we mostly use porcelain crowns.
The cost of a dental crown starts from $1,500 (before applying your health fund rebate). The price will vary depending on the type of restoration preparation needed for the tooth in question & the type of crown used.
A crown should last between 10 to 15 years, provided the crown is well looked after. It is well known that the longevity of your crowns and bridges will depend on several factors, such as good oral hygiene, accidents or trauma, teeth grinding and chewing/biting forces.
A crown only covers one tooth. It is bonded on top of a tooth that still has a health root. A bridge is a device that fills in a gap from a missing tooth, it consists of a fake tooth in the middle connected to two crowns on either side, hence where the name bridge comes from. The centre of the bridge is called a pontic, this is a false tooth that is designed to fit in the gap to look like a real tooth.