Dental crowns are known to give you long-term service. They probably could last longer if it were not for the intense punishment our teeth go through every day. When we chew too much gum or grind our teeth while asleep, the crowns have a life expectancy of about five years. It doesn't mean that your crowns will break and fracture as soon as they hit five years. Their condition depends on a number of things such as eating habits and oral hygiene. It's crucial that you visit us at our Ashburn dental crown office the moment you feel some kind of problem.

Breakage doesn't always spell disaster. It may be minor and not certain that the crown has to be replaced. We can still do a Ashburn dental crown repair job if the damage is not too serious, especially if the break hasn't reached the tooth root. Even damage to only part of the dental crown would not necessarily mean total extraction. But in cases where the crown cannot be preserved, we have no choice but to substitute the damaged one for a new crown.

How we fix your crown depends on what it is made of. If you have a porcelain or porcelain-metal crown, the ideal answer is bonding. We opt for bonding when it comes to fixing minute chips and fissures in your crown. To perform an effective bonding procedure, I need to do some drilling, sort of. What happens is we take a drill and hum it over the damaged areas. We don't want the area to be too smooth. In fact, it has to be quite rough for the composite bonding resin to work. It has to stick firmly on to the area that needs to be repaired.

The next step is to paint the crown using a fluid that allows the composite matter to stay on the porcelain.

With that done, I then need to be happy with the crown's color. I want to ensure all your teeth look the same. If the colors match, it is time for the resin to go on. It's shaped to fit and then all sealed and dried properly with my high-tech laser gun.

From what you've read, you know that you need to spend some time with us for the whole procedure. Each step along the way has to take in account exactly what is happening to your teeth during the entire procedure. The end result makes everyone happy as you boast a very nice little package on top of your tooth.