Getting Inlays and Onlays at Ardas Family Dental

If you’ve suffered a broken or severely decayed tooth, we have solutions at Ardas Family Dental in Parker. Our dental office is equipped to provide restorations ranging from simple fillings to implants and full-mouth dentures. But if you’ve incurred significant damage to the crown of a tooth, you may need something in between a mere filling and a full replacement. Partial crowns come in the forms of inlays and onlays, and although we hope our patients never require them, we want them to feel comfortable with the concepts should the need arise.

Our molars and premolars have to be able to withstand a lot of force. For the most part, they can, with their wide areas distributing the force of a bite, and their raised bits, called cusps, providing traction for grinding up food. But grinding teeth can split, particularly if a patient clenches their jaw in their sleep. Food debris can also get caught in between the cusps, allowing decay-causing bacteria to multiply there until a hole develops on the tooth’s surface. If we have to drill away a decayed indentation, we may use a partial crown called an inlay to replace the missing enamel. If we also have to replace a broken cusp, we would call the partial crown an onlay.

The placement of an inlay or onlay isn’t too different from the placement of a full crown. After removing damaged enamel, we would make an impression of a patient’s mouth and provide them with a temporary crown. Once we receive the custom-milled partial crown from a dental laboratory, the patient would return to have it cemented in. Partial crowns for permanent teeth are made to blend in with the natural enamel surrounding them and they’re meant to last. If a patient brushes their teeth twice a day and wears a night guard to protect their teeth from nighttime jaw clenching, a partial crown could last for ten years.

Dr. Roopi Kattaura operates Ardas Family Dental at 10233 S Parker Rd, Suite 205, Parker, Colorado. Call 720-459-8420.

Getting Crowns at Ardas Family Dental

 

Artificial crowns are one of the most common types of dental prosthetics. They replace the part of the tooth that is visible, also known as the cap, and stand independently of other teeth. But we know some patients at Ardas Family Dental in Parker may still be confused about what makes artificial crowns different from prosthetics such as inlays and implants, so we wanted to provide a brief run-down on what crowns are for and how they are placed.

Crowns are used in circumstances in which a tooth is too badly damaged or decayed to be held together with a filling or partial crown. That could be due to the tooth getting chipped, or it could be because we intentionally filed a tooth down so that it could receive a new crown after drilling into it for root canal therapy. The tooth’s remaining natural enamel has to be filed into a cylindrical shape called an abutment for an artificial crown to be placed over. If the entire tooth is gone and being replaced with an implant, the implant will include a metal abutment that sticks up from the gum.

The patient is numbed while their tooth is filed into an abutment, and a mold is subsequently taken of their mouth. They will leave the office wearing a temporary crown while the mold is sent to a dental laboratory, where their permanent crown is made out of porcelain or something similarly hard and colored like a natural tooth. We will help a patient ensure their new tooth matches their natural ones. At a second visit to our office, the permanent crown is cemented onto the abutment. Dental crowns have to be cared for like normal teeth, or they will decay or crack. But when properly cared for, they can last for over ten years and function just like natural teeth.

Dr. Roopi Kattaura operates Ardas Family Dental at 10233 S Parker Rd, Suite 205, Parker, Colorado. Call 720-459-8420 or visit Ardas Family Dental and fill out a contact sheet.

Treating Cracked Teeth at Ardas Family Dental

Tooth sensitivity is unfortunately common, but don’t think that means you have to live with it, or that it’s not a big deal. At Ardas Family Dental in Parker, Colorado, we provide patients with all sorts of restorations, including implants. When a tooth is especially sensitive, or when the gum is inflamed around it, the tooth may be cracked. In those cases, we’d have several treatment options available, but patients need to be aware of the importance of getting treated as soon as possible.

Cracks can develop for all sorts of reasons, including biting down on something too hard, loss of structural integrity to tooth decay, and teeth clenching or grinding. (The last has gotten more common during the pandemic.) Sometimes, small cracks called craze lines can develop simply due to age. A craze line could be covered with a veneer, but a crack in the crown may necessitate the placement of a partial crown, or for the entire natural crown to be filed down and replaced with a prosthetic. If the crack is deep enough to reach the dental pulp, we would also do a root canal to ensure the patient is not suffering from an infection that could progress into an abscess or blood poisoning.

If a tooth is cracked below the gum line, it would likely have to be replaced entirely. If so, it may be possible for us to replace it with either an implant-supported crown or a partial denture. An implant would have the advantages of preserving the patient’s jaw bone structure, allowing them to continue their regular oral hygiene routine, and wouldn’t need to be refitted, but would also have to be replaced if the implant were to fracture. Regardless, a cracked tooth won’t heal on its own, and is likely to continue to cause the patient pain and may become an avenue for infection until it is treated.

Dr. Roopi Kattaura operates Ardas Family Dental at 10233 S Parker Rd, Suite 205, Parker, Colorado. Call 720-459-8420 or visit Ardas Family Dental and fill out a contact sheet.

Cracked Teeth in Parker, CO

Enamel cracks run the gamut from agonizing health concerns to cosmetic annoyances. But at Ardas Family Dental in Parker, Colorado, we’re prepared to restore a patient’s teeth no matter their condition. Prosthetics come in all shapes and sizes, so to encourage patients to seek treatment sooner, we wanted to describe when different kinds are necessary.

Craze lines are tiny, shallow cracks that develop in the surfaces of crowns. They typically don’t present a health concern or cause a patient any pain, so they can be covered with bonding or a veneer. But if a crack is deep enough for a patient to be in pain or at risk of infection, it will likely need to be filled in with a partial crown. Extensive damage to the tooth could necessitate the replacement of an entire crown and we might also want to remove the pulp through root canal therapy, but the tooth would probably still be salvageable unless the crack went down to the root. In that case it would have to be removed and replaced with an implant, bridge, or partial denture.

When a tooth is merely chipped, bonding or a partial crown is often enough to reshape it. However, it’s worth examining how a tooth came to be cracked. If a patient grinds their teeth in their sleep, they may need a night guard to protect their enamel and reduce stress on their jaw. People should also wear mouthguards during sports and avoid biting down on hard surfaces, especially with their front teeth.

Dr. Roopi Kattaura operates Ardas Family Dental at 10233 S Parker Rd, Suite 205, Parker, Colorado. Call 720-459-8420 or visit Ardas Family Dental and fill out a contact sheet.