A crown can be described as a dental restoration which is used to cap or encircle the whole area of a tooth or dental implant. They are usually required when a cavity in a tooth expands to the extent that it threatens the health of a tooth.
Dental cement is normally used to glue the crown to a tooth. A variety of materials can be used to make crowns using different methods of creation. The strength or appearance of a tooth is largely determined by the crown. Though crowning a tooth is beneficial to your health, it is also an expensive procedure with materials and tools commanding high prices. Gold crowns are just one example of dental crowns.
Full gold crowns (FGCs) are made up of a single piece of alloy material. While it is generally called a gold crown, it comprised of a couple of elements, including gold. Other elements are silver, palladium, copper, platinum and tin.
The quality of a gold crown improves when it contains high levels of noble metals (like palladium or gold). The American Dental Association says that gold crown alloys can be considered high noble when they contain 60% noble metal out of which at least 40% should be gold.
Though there are people who get crowns fitted for their visible teeth, most people prefer to use them for their back teeth. Though it is clear that having gold crowns fitted is quite expensive, a lot of patients still go for them sometimes as a status symbol or a fashion statement.
Procedure for fitting a gold crown
The procedure of fitting a gold crown starts in the dentist’s office. The process is not painful, as it requires the use of anesthesia.
- The tooth is prepared by removing tooth tissue to create space for the crown.
- Once this is done, the clinician will make a mold impression of the patient’s mouth.
- The impression of the patient’s teeth and gums are forwarded to a dental laboratory where a qualified technician will pour dental gypsum into the moulded impression to create a dental model. This model is a direct mimicking of the patient’s mouth.
- Next, using a technique called lost-wax casting, the lab technicians will cast a wax model, immerse it in a gypsum or phosphate-bonded immersion material, allow it to set and then put it into a furnace. In this furnace, the wax is totally burnt out
- Gold is poured into the hole created after the wax has burned out. As soon as the crown has cooled off, the technician will polish the crown and send it to the dentist’s office.
- At your next appointment, the dentist will remove your temporary crown and cement the now finished gold crown into place.
Gold crowns will last for many years, particularly with proper oral care. They are also quite strong and are thus less susceptible to damage compared to porcelain crowns. Additionally, they will not cause damage to adjacent teeth like porcelain crowns tend to do.
