Hi, Dr Rachel Hartl here, I’m one of the dentists here at Plaza Dental at Mackay.
The process of a same-day dental crown is quite different to how dental crowns have traditionally been made. So in this video, I’m going to run through that process and highlight some of those differences.
The start of the appointment is very similar to a normal crown appointment, where old fillings are removed from the tooth so that the tooth can be checked for cracks, decay or any other concerns. If we find any problems, we make sure they are addressed before proceeding. Once that is all done and the tooth has been tidied up, we then get a three-dimensional scan of the tooth. So this is one of the first points of difference between same-day crowns and traditional crowns.
Instead of filling your mouth with dental impression material to take the mould of your teeth, we get a three-dimensional scan using one of our advanced intraoral scanners. From that scan, we design your crown. Your custom-made crown is then designed on the computer. This enables us to fit that crown exactly onto your tooth, match it with your other teeth, and to get the colour so it looks and feels like a natural tooth.
Once the crown is designed, it is then milled from our milling machine here at the clinic. A milling machine is similar to a CNC lathe, in that a ceramic block is put in there and the machine cuts the exact shape of the crown that we have designed. Once that has been cut out, we then try that in and make sure that it fits perfectly, not just on the tooth, but with the teeth either side.
Once that has been checked, the crown is then taken away and it is polished, glazed and fired in a ceramic furnace to bring it up to its full strength. It is then cleaned and bonded into your tooth. Once the crown is bonded onto the tooth, we clean everything up and make sure the bite is perfectly even.
Only when everything feels comfortable, is it the end of the appointment and you are able to go home with your new definitive crown in your mouth. So, no worrying about whether a temporary crown falls out before your next appointment, in fact, no second appointment at all.
Utilising this procedure, we can make crowns for one tooth, two teeth, and sometimes even do complete smile makeovers in a single appointment. The time for one tooth is generally somewhere around two hours, but a lot of this time is spent with us doing the various processes outside of your mouth. So we recommend that anyone who comes down brings a book or a magazine or something to watch or listen to, while you wait to get everything done.
So if you have a cracked tooth, have very large fillings that need replacing, or need a crown for other reasons, and want to have minimal downtime to have this restored, we would love to look after you. Simply direct message us on social media, call us on 07 4942 3272, or go to our website on plazadental.com.au and fill in the enquiry form, and one of our friendly team members will help you arrange your appointment.
