Porcelain, Ceramic and Zirconia colored crowns and bridges can offer a very esthetic, functional answer in these situations where a tooth lacks enough sound structure to choose a less aggressive method of restoration, or, in the ease of bridgework, where one or more teeth is missing and needs replacement.

On the other hand, some folks are just born with really bad teeth from DNA passed on from parents or grand parents, or have abused their teeth from drug abuse. In these cases, Cosmetic Dental Crowns and Bridges are the best solution for fixing these malformed, missing and missligned teeth.  They offer great esthetics, color matching and fit, and don't take very long to fabricate and install.

Crowns are used when there is enough solid tooth material and structure left to place a crown over it. There sort of a cross between the rings of a barrel and a hat, in which the rings provide superior strength, and the hat covers the top and provides a high level of protection. They are carefully designed and fitted, and then permanently glued on.

If you're missing a tooth, or several teeth, then you may want to consider getting a bridge. There are many reasons for missing teeth such as drug abuse, physical blow or trauma, or the tooth just plains gives out and cracks from daily pressure. A bridge is pretty clever because it attaches to 2 structurally sound teeth on the outside, in order to replace a missing tooth on the inside. You'll retain functional use such as eating and achieve a high level of esthetics as well.

The restorative dental staff at HLD Cosmetic Dentistry Center looks-forward to discussing your cosmetic dentistry options with you, and offering their expertise on the appropriate method of treatment for your particular situation.

In the past, crowns were hand sculptured by very skilled dental technicians out of a variety of metals such as gold, and then perhaps coasted with porcelain (Porcelain Fused to Metal), to create very fine looking results. Gold was used because its pressure rating closely matched that of a natural tooth at 550 PSI, and was slightly soft to absorb impact such as hot dog bones. Today, the trend is rapidly building towards Computer Numerical Controlled (CNC) milling machines that can take a small block of material and mill it into a tooth that is so lifelike; it's hard to tell the difference. The tooth is modeled on the computer in 3D, and saved as a computer file for later use and milling. This new generation of CNC milled replicas has a pressure rating of around 450 PSI, which is slightly below that of a natural tooth at 550 PSI, allowing the possibility of the crown breaking before the actual tooth structure itself.

The materials being used today are almost as strong as a natural tooth, with the tradeoff being that they are resistant to staining. One of the more popular materials is Zirconium Dioxide, which is a white luminescent powder in which additives such as magnesium oxide (MgO), yttrium (Y2O3) calcium oxide (CaO) and cerium (III) oxide are added to create Zirconia. It is considered a ceramic, with excellent heat dissipating characteristics, scratch resistance, and is transparent to radio signals.

So you have a choice now days, in which you can select from classic 20th century materials and hand craftsmanship, or go with new 21st century materials and CNC milling. Below are small ads representing the top three companies offering 21st century technology, in which we highly suggest you make your selection from.

We have several case studies, or before and after pictures to show to you below. These particular case studies have been provided by Nobel Biocare. We will add more case studies later on in 2009.