Crowns & Bridges, One appointment crowns

Crowns
The traditional full coverage crown that you may be familiar with is not done at Dr. Austin's office much anymore.  Recent research has discovered that it is the enamel coating that creates and gives the tooth it's strength.  Today's modern technology allows Dr. Austin to only remove the weak tooth structure preserving the remaining healthy tooth.  With CEREC technology Dr. Austin than fabricates a porcelain restoration which is bonded into place restoring only the lost tooth structure.  By using this technique Dr. Austin is able to restore the tooth back to 98% of it's original strength. The strength of a tooth with a traditional crown has been found to be only 80% of it's original strength.

Bridges
If you are missing one tooth, or several teeth, as a patient you have several options available to replace and restore the missing tooth/teeth.  An artificial "root" made out of titanium is one very nice option. The titanium root once integrated into the jaw is than restored with a procelain crown. This treatment is called an implant and has become very popular.  The more traditional method is called a bridge.  To complete a bridge, the teeth on either side of the missing tooth are prepared for crowns.  An impression is taken, and a single unit bridge, made of three or more teeth is created to replace the missing tooth or teeth.  Once made the bridge is cemented permanently in place over the previously repaired teeth.  The photo's to the left show an example of two missing teeth and two three unit bridges which replaced the missing teeth.