Everything’s digital and computer-assisted these days. Paper maps have been replaced by Google Maps. You can buy picture frames that display a digital slideshow of your favorite memories. You can even ask Siri to read you the forecast. And dentistry is no exception.
At Beaumont Family Dentistry, we’re proud to have invested in the latest dental technology to make treatment more comfortable, precise, and convenient for you. One of the great things we offer here in our Lexington, KY office is same-day dental crowns. Thanks to computer-assisted dentistry, we’re able to repair a damaged tooth in just one visit. It saves you the hassle of wearing a temporary crown or coming back for a second appointment.
Read on to learn more about how we use technology to produce high-quality crowns in a single visit! Then, give us a call at any of our three convenient locations to schedule a consultation with Dr. Takacs or any member of our talented team.
- Beaumont: 859-223-2120
- Hamburg: 859-687-0975
- Leestown: 859-368-8260
Same-Day Dental Crowns Vs. Traditional Dental Crowns
To fully understand how convenient same-day crowns are, it helps to understand how things are conventionally done. If you’ve already had a dental crown procedure that required you to wear a temporary crown, you already know how big of a headache it can be.
In most places, getting a tooth restored with a crown requires two visits after the initial consultation. You’d come in for the first appointment to prepare the tooth for the dental crown. This involves removing just enough of your tooth structure to accommodate your restoration.
Then, the dentist will take images and impressions of the prepared tooth. This information is sent to an off-site lab, which will fabricate the dental crown based on those images and impressions. The lab then ships the crown back to the dentist, who can then bond the restoration to your tooth.
The fabrication and shipping process can take weeks — or even longer! And during that time, you’ll most likely have to wear a temporary crown to protect your prepared tooth. These “temporaries” are often ill-fitting and uncomfortable. Sometimes, they’ll fall out while you’re eating or talking. They can be downright inconvenient.
But with same-day crowns, you won’t need a temporary crown because your permanent restoration is made right here in our office! This allows us to both prepare and restore the tooth in a couple hours or so.
Many offices don’t have the ability to fabricate dental restorations in-house, so that’s something we think is pretty special.
How Same-Day Crowns Are Made
When you come to Beaumont Family Dentistry to have a tooth repaired, the first thing we’ll do is determine that a dental crown is what’s best going to fit your needs. Dental crowns are single-tooth prosthetics. They look like a healthy version of your natural tooth, and they’re placed over damaged teeth to restore their strength and appearance.
They’re commonly used to address teeth that are:
- Cosmetically deficient
- Missing (with the help of a dental bridge or dental implant)
- Misshapen or worn down
- Weak from decay
- Damaged
- In need of support after a root canal or other procedure
After that, we’ll prepare the tooth. We’ll first numb the area to ensure your comfort. Then, we’ll carefully remove just enough of the tooth structure to make room for the crown. This is a comfortable process, but if you’re feeling particularly anxious about it, we do offer sedation options to help calm your nerves.
Then, we’ll use a special camera to take a series of digital images of the tooth, which we’ll use to create a computerized blueprint of your dental restoration. We then send that information to our state-of-the-art CEREC milling machine
And that’s where the magic happens. In just a matter of minutes, this piece of technology actually carves your dental restoration out of a block of ceramic. At Beaumont Family Dentistry, we use an incredibly durable material called e.max to create crowns for your biting teeth. It’s virtually unbreakable!
Once the crown is ready, we’ll make some final adjustments to the appearance of the tooth to ensure that your prosthetic blends in seamlessly with the rest of your smile. Finally, we’ll bond the restoration to the prepared tooth. You’ll be able to walk out of our office with a restored smile you’ll feel great about.
Plus, when same-day crowns are made by a highly skilled dentist like Dr. Takacs or any member of her team, they can be “better than restorations made by conventional laboratory procedures.” That’s according to a comprehensive literature review published in the Journal of International Oral Health.
In our practice, about 90 percent of the dental crowns we provide are same-day crowns made in-house!
Experience The Convenience Of Same-Day Restorations
You’ll love the convenience of same-day dental crowns. Give us a call at any of our three locations to learn more about this convenient treatment option! You can also use our online form to request an appointment.