Dental Crowns

Dental crowns are prosthetic coverings that fully cover damaged teeth, extending all the way down the sides to the gum line. Crowns are quite durable, and with proper care, can last decades. The advanced materials and exact fit of today’s crowns ensure your crowned tooth will look like a natural, healthy tooth. And, it will have the strength of one, too.

Among other things, Dr. Isaac Comfortes of Total Health Dentistry in Encino, California, restores teeth with custom fabricated dental crowns to:

• Cover a cavity that is too large for a routine dental filling
• Repair a fractured filling
• Restore a cracked tooth
• Strengthen a weakened tooth
• Build up worn teeth to improve bite alignment and reduce your risk for TMD (temporomandibular joint disorders)
• Conceal severe stains
• Improve the look of an irregularly shaped or disproportionately small tooth

Dr. Isaac Comfortes will design your custom crowns in meticulous detail. He offers a full range of restorative materials, including tooth-colored porcelain and zirconia, and the most durable of all—gold. Gold is a frequent choice of patients who want the longest lasting restoration possible for a back molar that does not show when they smile.

For porcelain crowns, he offers only the best materials for lifelike, natural appearance. His expert dental ceramist can see you in our office to make sure your custom porcelain crowns color match and perfectly blend with your smile.

Dr. Comfortes will explain all of the restorative materials to choose from, their relative durability, aesthetics, and cost. He will encourage you to participate in the planning process so that you receive a crown that meets your long-lasting cosmetic, as well as functional goals.

Because he has been providing the highest quality dentistry for over 25 years and staying on the forefront of advances in his field, some patients who came to him for a crown over 25 years ago still travel long distances to still be in his care now. They know his crowns and other dental restorations will be so perfect in form, durability and appearance that they will endure and meet the highest expectations long into the future. Dr. Comfortes thinks of these patients as his “friends with Longevity Smiles.”

Why choose custom porcelain, zirconia, or gold dental crowns?

Instead of offering a Cerec CAD/CAM milled crown that can be made and placed in your mouth on the same day your tooth is prepped to receive a crown, Dr. Comfortes wants the most perfectly fit and formed crown to enhance your smile. He and his ceramist will make an exact fit, shape the tooth for best appearance and occlusion, and in the case of tooth-colored porcelain crowns, perfect the translucence, reflectivity, and color of the crown to match your natural teeth. While your wait a couple of weeks for your crown to be made, you will wear a provisional crown made of durable, tooth-colored acrylic.

Dr. Comfortes will provide the guidance you need.

When planning for your crown, Dr. Comfortes will recommend very specific materials he knows will provide the most long-lasting results. For natural aesthetics, tooth-colored crowns are recommended for teeth that show when you smile, talk and laugh. Tooth-colored crowns can be made of:

• Porcelain fused on an underlying metal structure to provide strength
• All porcelain for more natural appearance but more limited strength
• Porcelain fused on zirconia for a more natural appearance and strength
• All zirconia for when the need for strength outweighs the desire most lifelike appearance

Zirconia is slightly translucent, so when it is used for the core of a crown with an overlay of porcelain, there is more lifelike sparkle than when the core of a crown is metal. Porcelain-fused-on-zirconia crowns are a popular choice for longevity plus aesthetics. Both porcelain and zirconia are available in a wide range of natural colors.

How will your tooth be crowned?

After planning your procedure and helping you select the right type of restoration, Dr. Comfortes will likely place your crown in two appointments. At your first crown treatment appointment, he will reshape your tooth, removing any decayed or damaged material. This process will also create room for the crown so that it will lie flat against your tooth and maintain the natural force of your bite. Dr. Comfortes will numb your tooth and surrounding soft tissue with local anesthesia. After reshaping your tooth, impressions will be made of your mouth. Upper and lower molds of your mouth will be made from the impressions. He will use these molds to make a wax-up model of the restored tooth and check the biting contacts with other teeth. From this model, he can quickly create a temporary restoration while you wait. He will place this provisional crown on the prepared tooth so you can smile and eat with relative ease.

Between this first appointment and your second one, Dr. Comfortes and his Certified Dental Technician (CDT) will use these records and Dr. Comfortes’s design to fabricate a restoration that functions and feels like a natural tooth. The natural appearance of a tooth-colored crown will be perfected to match your smile.

At your second appointment, Dr. Comfortes will remove the temporary crown and attach the permanent restoration. Before you leave the office, he will ensure that the crown does not disrupt your natural bite alignment. He will also make sure that you are happy with the look of your new tooth. He can make slight modifications to your crown in both form and color before you leave the office. If you experience a change in your bite or soreness in the days after your crown is placed, you should call us to discuss these observations. Dr. Comfortes will be happy to examine you sooner than your next scheduled appointment and make any needed adjustments.

For your dental appointments, you will be offered the NuCalm™ deep relaxation system and can experience dentistry in more relaxed comfort than you may have experienced ever before.

Implant-retained dental crowns are the gold standard in single tooth replacement.

As mentioned above, a crown will typically go right on top of a damaged tooth. However, a crown can go on a dental implant to replace a missing tooth. If you are a candidate for an implant, Dr. Comfortes will have an exceptional, local dental specialist surgically place the implant in your bone to replace the missing tooth’s root(s). Over the next four to six months, your bone and gum tissues will heal around it. When you have fully healed, Dr. Comfortes will attach a permanent dental crown. Like traditional tooth-supported crowns, your restoration will match the shape and color of your natural teeth. Implants are permanent, and they will never slip out of place. They are also the only type of dental restoration that can prevent bone resorption.

Custom Porcelain Dental Crowns can include icons and words.

Our talented Dental Technicians can make your custom porcelain crowns and insert your message where it would be visible to the world.

Take the first steps towards a healthy, renewed smile.

Contact our office if you are looking for a dentist who cares deeply about the quality of his work and for the patients he serves. If you have had a root canal and need a crown…if you have a painful tooth…if you are concerned about the condition of your teeth and want to restore your smile…if you have delayed recommended treatment due to dental anxiety, you can be a patient of one of LA’s finest general and cosmetic dentists.