Diversity is what makes life so interesting. We need variety. Genius is derived from the search for variety, which is why it is also called the mother of ingenuity. It is what keeps me going and variety is something I'm always looking out for. Just like chili peppers and anchovies.

If you're wondering where I'm going with all this, well, us dentists also enjoy variety with our dental crowns, though it's not as diverse as pizza toppings. There are a host of dental crowns here in my Ashburn dental office, such as metal, porcelain, and hybrid.

Metal dental crowns have the widest choices from the different alloys that have been developed. These include gold, titanium, chromium, palladium, and nickel. You won't be wrong if you already think of alloys as hybrid, with all the different types of metals they have in them. As such, the characteristics of the alloy mimic those metals that went into its manufacture.

Of the patients who want metal alloys on their teeth, gold dental crowns are what people want most of all. You can put gold dental crowns through a lot of punishment while being gentle to teeth on the other row and won't cause them to wear away too fast.

Okay, that explains something about metal crowns. We now go on to porcelain ones, which can offer you as much durability and strength as any metal crown. These are preferred when patients require dental crowns on their front teeth, because they look very real.

Even so, in the long run I would recommend metal Ashburn dental crowns in the sense that they do not result in wear and tear of your other teeth, which they may rub against.

But neither porcelain nor metal are perfect. The metal ones are not great if you want something that looks good. The porcelain ones are inflexible. The solution is the hybrid. This great combination has porcelain on the outside, so others will think it is real. It also contains metal on the lower part, so it can act like a cushion at every bite. Every time you bite, the metal in the crown softens the blow.

It is an amazing concept. Like I said, variety is the mother of ingenuity. Eating and chewing is no longer a problem for you. Now where did I leave that slice of pizza?