When a person needs a tooth restoration, oftentimes the best thing for them is a gold crown.  Because a gold crown must be precision-crafted in a dental laboratory, the patient may need to make two or more trips to a Houston Cosmetic Dentist.  However, the outcome will be well worth waiting for. 

Placing a Gold Crown

In order to ensure the best possible outcome, the dentist has to take some preparatory steps.   The first step is to numb the area surrounding the tooth so the patient will feel comfortable.  There really is not point in allowing people to suffer in a dental chair.  Dental work is always better accomplished in a fear-free, pain-free setting. 

The dentist also protects the patients throat with a device known as a rubber dam.  A rubber dam blocks the back of the mouth and prevents any dental debris from falling into the air passageway or esophagus.  After the rubber dam has been placed, the dentist then uses the handpiece to clean out any and all tooth decay we discover. 

The dentist also shapes the tooth so the gold crown will properly fit it.  When a tooth is properly shaped in this manner, the crowned tooth will always be in alignment with surrounding teeth.  Its top will also be even with the tops of natural teeth.

After the dentist finishes shaping the tooth, he or she takes impressions of the teeth and uses these impressions to construct a replica of the patients mouth.  This replica is sent to the laboratory, where technicians use it as a guide for making custom-crafted gold crown that precisely fit the tooth and bite. 

This takes time, of course.  During the interim period, the dentist places a temporary crown on the tooth at the end of the first visit.  This temporary is extremely important.  It protects all the work that the dentist has put into cleaning, resizing, and resurfacing the tooth.

Once the lab sends the dentist the newly created gold crown, the patient returns to the office.  During the second appointment, the dentist removes the temporary crown and places the gold crown over your tooth without cementing it.  This is done to test the crown first. 

Bite is the first thing that is tested, because the tooth must be even at the top with other teeth or the patient will feel noticeable discomfort while chewing.  Next, alignment has to be confirmed to make sure that both the crowned tooth and existing teeth do not crowd each other out of their proper spaces. 

Once these things are confirmed, the crown is cemented in place.

The benefits of a gold crown

Gold has always been a highly sought after substance prized for both its beauty and its unique practical uses.  In dentistry, it offers some very remarkable advantages

Like all crowns, gold protects teeth by covering it.  However, it also contributes other unique benefits:

         Gold is easy on opposing teeth during chewing.

         Gold is very tough.  Do not let its softness fool you.  It will handle heavy bite pressure.

         Gold will last.

Considering its symbolic and aesthetic value, it should be no surprise that gold is still used to make many dental crowns of gold even in this age of information and high-tech solutions.