Dental Bridges and Crowns (Caps)
Crowns
Crowns are a wonderful dental restoration. Usually after a tooth has been broken, fractured, or has gotten very large cavity, we may recommend a crown. We also recommend crowns when an old crown needs to be replaced because of a cavity underneath the crown, or for cosmetic reasons (the grey by the gum, or recent teeth whitening).
Crown appointments have two appointments. The first is about an hour where the tooth is properly shaped, and has an impression, and a custom temporary. The second appointment, about two weeks later, is very quick and involves the temporary crown to be taken off, and the new one tried in, and cemented. Very rarely will my crowns have any metal color to them. I know you want it to look just like natural teeth. They typically are made of tooth colored zirconia and porcelain. They are very strong and I guarantee their qulaity.
Bridges
Dental bridges have been the primary way to replace missing teeth for the last 50 years. They are a great, long lasting, treatment option.
Below is a before and after of a case of a dental bridge. Instead of drilling the teeth next to the missing tooth, we did a fiber reinforced composite bridge. This is a great option when you need a tooth replacement for several years before an implant. This is a great option as well when you have healthy teeth, and are unable to do an implant. But this result is very esthetic. Again, no drilling on teeth with this case. This takes only one appointment and about 90 minutes. 
This type of bridge can be highly natural in appearance. Here, I used several tints and colors to duplicate the characterizations of the teeth. I have tremendous pride in my artistic ability and skill to duplicate natural tooth colors like this. The best dentistry is not noticed when you smile, as seen below.
"Holy, I can't believe how great my front teeth look. An hour ago I had one front tooth! Oh My! I can't wait to show this off!" Mark P. Towson, MD.
Crowns, or caps, are done to secure and strengthen teeth that are broken down. Below is the last porcelain crown that we cemented a few weeks ago. You can see extra cement extruding over the gum tissue to prove it was a crown (removed after photo taken)
In the above, the patient was thrilled. The color was excellent, even though the space the crown took up was 2 mm wider than the other central incisor. The lab did an out
We do a very customized method for shade taking where I will compose a custom shade tabs and take photos of them all, and send them all to the laboratory. This gives the exact color spectrum and differences in colors that may get missed without it. A picture like below with many tabs is sent to the lab.
Denta Bridges:
A dental bridge is a strong, porcelain, custom-made, dental prosthetic that is gently cemented onto your teeth to replace the gaps of missing teeth. The teeth supporting the bridge, need to be strong enough to be pillars of the bridge.
I am happy to say that the high quality bridges that I am now delivering to patients, usually have a white ZIRCONIA framework. This allows the edge of of the bridge to be tooth colored, and not dark grey colored from the underlying metal. Zirconia is technically a metal and is therefore very strong. Very esthetic porcelain, that matches only your teeth, is applied over the framework.
Bridges are a wonderful alternative to partial dentures, however, bridges are a poor treatment if the supporting teeth do not need crowns. We'll have to come up with another option. Bridges are also a poor choice if a dental implant is a reasonable option. Bridges are a great option for patients who are not implant candidates.
There are other types of bridges that I perform routinely. I also do resin supported bridges. These are bridges that require little adjustment of the teeth next to them, and they are supported with very strong composite resin. These are a great alternative to traditional bridges if the teeth do not need the support of being crowned. They can look great. Usually I will support them with RIBBOND fibers. They can look great, but will need some upkeep in the years to come.