3 Factors That Should Influence Your Porcelain Crown Selection

Tooth decay can often result in the need to undergo a root canal. A tooth that has experienced a root canal will need to be covered with a durable cap to prevent further decay. Most dental patients opt to invest in a crown to cover their tooth.

You have a couple of options available to you when it comes to selecting porcelain crowns. The first is an all-porcelain crown. The second is a porcelain-over-metal crown. Use these factors to help you decide which option is right for you.

1. Aesthetics

Your smile is often the first thing that a person notices about you. If you want to maintain the aesthetics of your smile, you should opt to cap off any visible teeth when you smile with an all-porcelain crown.

These crowns are handcrafted by dental lab technicians. Numerous layers of porcelain in varying shades are combined to create a crown that exactly mirrors the appearance of your own teeth.

If the tooth you had treated with a root canal is a molar, then aesthetics won't matter as much. A porcelain-over-metal crown is created by using porcelain to overlay a durable metal base.

Completely covering the gray of the metal with translucent porcelain is a challenge, and there may be a slight noticeable difference between your natural teeth and a porcelain-over-metal crown. This difference in appearance will go unnoticed if you reserve porcelain-over-metal crowns for your posterior teeth.

2. Durability

Your teeth are subjected to significant amounts of pressure each day. The pressure applied to a tooth when you bite down on certain food items could cause an all-porcelain crown to crack.

Porcelain is a fairly brittle material. When a metal base is utilized in conjunction with a porcelain overlay, most of the pressure placed on the tooth will be absorbed by the metal base.

This ensures that your porcelain-over-metal crown will last well into the future and is another reason why a crown with a metal base should be used when capping a molar. Molars handle most of the chewing that you do, so they need to be extremely durable.

3. Cost

Quality dental work can be quite an investment, and many patients factor cost into the equation when selecting a crown following a root canal. All-porcelain crowns tend to be a little more expensive because of the time and skill required to generate these crowns in a lab setting.

If you are looking to keep your dental costs low, then a porcelain-over-metal crown is your best option. Your dentist will be able to help you determine the difference in price between the two primary porcelain crown varieties available to you.