What Materials Are Used to Make Crowns?
You find crowns made up of a variety of materials, each with specific advantages and disadvantages. Typically, certain materials are better suited to certain teeth, depending on their position in the mouth. All of these options are available to you from our Yuba City dentists, but some, especially the finer metals, may require special ordering.
Different crown types include:
Metal:
These crowns may be formed from alloys of gold, palladium, nickel, chromium, or other metals.
Advantages: Holds up well under biting and chewing forces; has a long life and rarely chips or breaks; requires a lesser amount of tooth structure to be removed; does not cause as much opposite tooth wear as other materials.
Disadvantages: More noticeable than others crown types (most patients choose metal only for teeth that are not in easy view, such as molars, or if they’re after a certain “bling” factor or want to match existing restorations).
Porcelain Fused to Metal:
These crowns combine the strengths of both these materials.
Advantages: Ability to color match to adjacent teeth; stronger than porcelain used alone.
Disadvantages: Causes more opposite tooth wear; porcelain section is relatively weaker and susceptible to chipping; metal part may be visible.
All-resin:
These crowns are made of a composite material comparable to that used for filling teeth.
Advantages: Ability to color match, less expensive than other alternatives.
Disadvantages: Relatively weak, susceptible to wear and fractures, making replacement much more likely.
All Porcelain or Ceramic:
These materials are primarily used for crowns that restore the front teeth.
Advantages: Best ability to color match, and an alternative to patients with allergies to metals.
Disadvantages: Less expensive forms tend to be weaker, and cause greater wear to opposite teeth with age. Newer formulations, such as lithium disilicate, are stronger and cause little wear to the dentition.
To explore all of your options in materials for inlays, onlays and crowns, visit the office of the Yuba City Dental Group.
Schedule a Dental Crown Consultation
