Crowns

The cost for a dental crown will vary across the UK. It will depend on the expertise and experience of the dentist as well as the skill of the laboratory technicians.

Our fees here at Progressive Dentistry in Fulham for a dental crown are:

• £765 for a ceramic or zirconium crown.
• £995 for a premium ceramic crown- this is where a shade testing at the laboratory is needed and a highly skilled technician with special experience will undertake the work.
• £1350 for a fully customised crown- there are several steps involved in this process and we would usually advise this for a single front tooth or two front teeth. The crown or crowns will be fully customised with you at the laboratory for highly specialised finishing touches such as translucency, light reflection, opacities, craze lines and edge definition to name a few.

Crowns can be made from many materials including porcelain (ceramic), zirconia and gold alloy.

For front teeth, our preference is E Max by Ivoclar. This is a lithium disilicate ceramic with the major advanatge of being highly aesthetic and can be made to match your own front teeth. We can match characteristics within your adjacent teeth such as transluency at the edges, colour variations, light reflection, cracks (should you wish!), opacities and contours for example.

For back teeth, zirconia is often the material of choice as it has a strength of almost five times that of normal ceramic. The aesthetics are also very good and natural with recent improvements in technology. The other major advantage of zirconia crowns is that the material is durable in a very thin section so that less of the natural tooth needs to be cut down.

The process of getting a crown involves the following:

• A pre evaluation appointment will be needed in most cases with a close up x ray, diagnosis and discussion on the best type of crown for the tooth in question.
• The next step is the crown preparation appointment. Before we start, we will take a small impression of the tooth which will help us to make a temporary crown.
• The tooth will be then be carefully reduced using special crown burs (this does involve cutting the tooth down!)
• We are extremely minimal and will only reduce the tooth as much as is needed. In most cases, this is around 0.7-2mm all around the tooth and the biting surface.
• Once the tooth has been prepared, we will usually place a special cord and paste around the gum line which helps to gently push the gum away from the tooth so that the crown margins can be seen.
• A digital scan will then be taken using our amazing Trios intra oral scanner. There is now no need for messy impressions at all! The scan will be analysed to ensure the correct space has been created, that the margins are clear and for colour matching.
• The scan will then be e mailed to the dental laboratory.
• A temporary crown will then be placed.
• Once the crown has been made, it will be tried in and evaluated in terms of fitting, comfort and aesthetics.
• The crown can then be cemented in place using a highly adhesive cement.
• In most cases, we need 2 visits for the procedure. One for the preparation and one for the fitting. However, we are now able to offer SAME day crowns!

We now have the technology to be able to offer same day crowns. The process is exactly the same as above except that the crown will be made by our highly skilled dental technicians on the same day and ready to fit a few hours after the preparation. All we need to do is give the laboratory advance notice for planning and arrange your appointments accordingly. The major benefit of this is that there is no need to go away with a temporary crown for 2 or more weeks. There is a small laboratory surcharge for this type of crown.

After fitting, we will ask you to adopt a soft diet for 48 hours and gently clean around the gum line. Once the cement has fully set, you can use the dental crown as you would your natural teeth. It is extremely important to clean the crown well around the margins and in between the adjacent teeth as you would normally. We generally advise the use of an electric tooth brush and inter dental brushes such as TePe brushes or Piksters. Water flossers such as WaterPik are also useful.

Crowns can feel a little odd to begin with being a new shape and size in your mouth. However, you will adapt to this and it will feel natural over time.