What Happens To Your Natural Tooth When It Is Crowned

Dental crowns are more than tooth caps. What they do for your teeth is a lot more than just hold the teeth together. In fact, after a tooth has been crowned, all of the following benefits are experienced. 

The Tooth Lives

One of the biggest reasons your dentist opts to put a crown on a tooth is to save the tooth's life. The crown goes over the shaped nub of the tooth (which is still a living part of your body). The blood vessels, nerves, and tissues inside the tooth will never be affected by tooth decay again because the crown protects the whole tooth from above and below the gum line. Going forward, the tooth is well-protected until the crown is damaged and breaks, but most dental crowns last for many years. 

The Crown Provides a Harder Chewing Surface

A lot of dentists like to use porcelain or a porcelain-zirconium crown. These crowns are the hardest of all of your dental crown options, which is perfect for anyone that grinds their teeth or tries to open bottles and bags with their teeth. These crowns cannot be broken under the shearing force of your jaws. In fact, the only way they can be broken is through sheer brutal force to your jaws. That makes these crowns perfect for everyday chewing of the foods you love to bite and chew. Your natural tooth practically gains superpowers when it is crowned. 

Tooth Sensitivity Flies out the Window

If you were having sensitivity to heat, cold, hard foods, etc., with the tooth that is being crowned, guess what? It will no longer be sensitive or exhibit pain when any of these substances are chewed or swallowed. That is because the crown covers the remaining surface area of the tooth and blocks out the sensations that the nerves in that tooth would have otherwise picked up on. Instead of avoiding certain foods because of tooth sensitivity, you can now enjoy those foods free of tingling and pain because the crown blocks the nerve's hyperactive pain receptors. 

A Crowned Tooth Outlasts Your Other Teeth

Let's say that you lose several of your teeth with age. Guess what happens to the crowned tooth? It remains because it is unaffected by the things that took your other teeth (e.g., decay, deadened nerves, infection, etc.). You may find it advantageous to crown more of your teeth as you get older, especially since crowned teeth act as anchor teeth for partial dentures.

To learn more about dental crowns, contact a dental company like Town Center Family Dental.