Crown? A crown is a covering, generally made out of porcelain, that protects the remaining part of your tooth after decay is removed. Let's say you have a large cavity. If it's too big to be patched with filling material, your tooth will be in danger of cracking in half due to volume loss; a crown is the usual recommendation. Crowns can have several different base materials, including 24 karat gold, palladium/platinum, and a palladium/platinum and nickel mix.  Since the crown base directly touches your gum tissue, a purer base will usually have better results. For those with metal allergies, think of it this way:  if you can't wear anything but solid gold earrings, you'll need a gold-based crown. Crowns are usually made in a laboratory by skilled craftsmen; and, for that reason, you may wait a week or two until your own custom-fitted crown is made. After placement, crowns act just like regular tooth material, in that they need regular brushing and flossing. The best part of all?  Because of modern staining techniques, today's crowns are indistinguishable from your other teeth!  So if you've had dental work done, no one will be any the wiser. Shhh! It's our secret.

Build-Up?  A build-up is a method used by dentists to shore up the remainder of a tooth after decay or a root canal has left it unstable. In other words, if there isn't going to be enough viable tooth structure left to support a crown, we'll do a build-up. There are two ways build-ups can be done; and both methods work well, dependent on the need for support. The first technique is pin retention. We use pins, which look a lot like staples, to reinforce tooth strength. The pins work in much the same way that rebar reinforces concrete, and they provide a framework for materials that harden and replace tooth structure. The second procedure is called a post and core build-up. A post and core looks rather like a nail. We drive the post deep into the tooth structure, and it fully supports any restoration placed on top of it.  This practice may sound rather harsh; but, without that added support, you could end up with a big space where your tooth used to be.  Build-ups are a very important part of modern dentistry.

 
Root Canal?  A root canal, contrary to popular belief, does not cause pain. It is, in fact, a procedure that ends pain by killing the nerve. When we kill the nerve, we also kill the blood supply to the tooth itself. When this happens, the tooth structure becomes chalk-like over time, which is why root canals and crowns are always partnered. Root canal therapy is, at this point in time, one of the few ways we have of managing severe pain, short of administering antibiotics and hoping the infection clears up on its own. Usually, the infection is too dire to be managed with medication alone. If you begin to feel pain at any level, please contact our office right away. If we catch the situation early enough, you may avoid a root canal - but if you have to have one, you'll be glad you did. There's nothing better than keeping your own natural tooth.

 
Composite Restoration?  Once upon a time, we used Amalgam to fill teeth. That's the silver filling material that you may have in your mouth right now. Time has brought several new materials to the forefront of modern dentistry, and composite is the king of filling materials today. Simply put, composite is a form of plastic resin. It starts out as a paste and can be formed to any shape (perfect for recontouring teeth that have lost volume because of decay). Then it is light-cured and becomes extremely hard - so hard, in fact, that it mimics the tensile strength of your own enamel. Composite material comes in a variety of colors, so it can be matched very accurately to your own tooth color. With composite, you can have a filling that no one (not even your closest friends) will be able to see.
 
We hope these descriptions helped you understand some of the most common of dental terms. We'll be back again later with other topics that will help you understand the finer details of your care. You deserve to know everything about the health of your own body!