A crown (or “cap”) covers the entire tooth and is done for a number of reasons. For the most part, crowns are done to repair a tooth that is broken down past what a filling can reasonably repair. The breakdown of the tooth can be from a cavity, wear, or a crack. Also, a crown is typically needed after a root canal is done on a tooth. Occasionally Dr. Sherer does a crown to esthetically enhance the appearance of a tooth. Crowns are made from multiple materials, and there are four basic kinds that Dr. Sherer uses in his office:

• Gold crown – As suggested by the name, the gold crown is made from mostly gold. It also contains a smaller amount of silver, platinum, and palladium. The gold crown is still a dentist’s gold standard for fit, wear on the other teeth, and overall longevity. The biggest concern is or course esthetics. Dr. Sherer often places gold crowns on the back teeth where they cannot be seen but will give optimum function.
• Porcelain Fused to Gold crown – To give better esthetics, we can do a crown that has a metal coping surrounding the tooth with a porcelain exterior. Dr. Sherer can match the porcelain to the color of your surrounding teeth to make the crown undetectable. Porcelain fused to gold crowns have good longevity and can be done on most teeth in the mouth.
• All Porcelain crown – For optimum esthetics on the front teeth, Dr. Sherer often uses crowns made entirely of porcelain material. Instead of a metal coping, a white zirconium material is used to give strength. Tooth colored porcelain is placed over the zirconium, and the white coping gives the crown an overall more realistic appearance. All porcelain crowns can occasionally be done on the back teeth, but these crowns have not shown the longevity of a gold crown or porcelain fused to gold crown.
• Resin (Composite) Crown – In a small number of situations a resin crown can be a good option. The crown is made out of similar material to composite fillings, but done in a lab. By bonding the resin crown to the tooth, these crowns have the tightest fit to the tooth. Because of longevity concerns with the material, resin crowns are only done in specific situations that Dr. Sherer can advise you about.

*All of Dr. Sherer’s crowns are made in the United States. He uses a local lab in Zionsville (Dental Ceramics) for every type of crown except the resin crown. Every crown is inspected by Dr. Sherer before he tries the crown on your tooth.