We use dental crowns to protect and preserve teeth that have been damaged or have decayed. When a tooth suffers from severe decay or damage, a pediatric cap may not be sufficient, and pediatric pulp therapy may be required before we can place the crown. Our goal is to prevent the premature loss of your child’s primary teeth, and dental crowns are one the best ways to preserve decayed primary teeth until permanent teeth come along.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, twenty percent of children have at least one untreated decayed tooth. We aim to lower that number among our kids in Plano, TX by expertly treating your child with a gentle touch.
Every child is unique, and the best way to determine your child’s need for a crown is by scheduling an appointment with us so our pediatric dentist, Dr. Smith, can evaluate your child’s mouth and oral health. Things that you can look for that may indicate that your child would benefit from a pediatric crown placed by a pediatric dentist include:
Excellent question. Pediatric crowns are designed to protect primary teeth until the permanent teeth push them out. Therefore, they are not intended to last as long and are made from different materials. Occasionally, our pediatric crowns are placed after we perform pulp therapy, a process in which the tooth is filled with a material that can be safely absorbed into the body as the tooth is lost naturally. Finally, when selecting a pediatric crown, we choose from a variety of sizes rather than customizing the tooth in a lab.
Once of the most common, durable, inexpensive, and successful materials used for pediatric crowns is stainless steel.
A popular material for crowns used on front teeth is resin, an affordable option that can be color-matched to your natural teeth. Unfortunately, these crowns can easily chip or crack. For a more successful result, we combine stainless steel with composite resin on long-term restorations, also known as resin veneer crowns.
If we know that the pediatric crown is short-term or temporary, we use polycarbonate crowns. They are made of polycarbonate resin shells and micro-glass fibers and have a tooth-colored, translucent quality.
We also make crowns for kids with zirconia, a highly durable material that is excellent for restoring front and back teeth.
We begin the process of placing a pediatric crown by administering dental sedation and/or a local anesthetic to keep your child calm, numb, and comfortable during the procedure. We remove the decayed or damaged tissue and then reshape the tooth so that the dental crown can fit on top. Finally, we adhere the pediatric crown to the top of the tooth.
