A Dental Case Study: Placing Dental Crowns
Hello Everyone,
I thought I would post a wonderful case we completed for a patient recently so you could see the intricacies of how crowns are made, from start to finish. One of the benefits of having your crowns made by our team is that I am directly involved with quality assurance during the entire process. Kymata Dental Arts is closely affiliated with and physically adjacent to my office, which allows us to have constant communication throughout the entire fabrication of crowns. As you will see, Mike and Rey (Kymata’s master technicians) provide documentation of each case that is second to none.
So here we go.
My patient, Steve, presented to me with failing porcelain veneers on six of his upper front teeth. Caries (aka dental decay) was infiltrating underneath these veneers, and spreading inward toward the nerves and heightening the possibility of needing root canal therapy. This is a picture of his preoperative condition.
Appropriate shades were chosen, which involved the collective effort and input from Steve, master technician Mike, my dental assistant Andrea (a master technician in her own right), and me.
I removed Steve’s old veneers, and eradicated the decaying areas of his teeth (pictured below).
Andrea made a beautiful and stable temporary prosthesis which was incredibly secure and esthetically acceptable. Steve was ecstatic.
Impressions made of Steve’s teeth enabled us to fabricate highly accurate stone models, from which individual titanium copings were generated using CAD/CAM technology. These copings served as the substructure for the overlay of porcelain, and are both highly durable and remarkably light.
A multiple step porcelain addition technique was employed to customize the outer shells of the crowns by creating intricacies within each crown. This process is very intensive and requires a high degree of artistic ability and skill.
The crowns were placed, evaluated, and cemented in Steve’s mouth only after his approval. Mike was available to note and follow-up with any minor requests for changes we might have.
Our delighted patient presented one week after the crowns were cemented for follow up.
It was an honor for me to work with our entire team who performed so well to deliver this beautiful and satisfying result.
Paul Huddleston, DDS