Answer:
Crown and bridge is a term referred to in dentistry sometimes associated with prosthodontics. A crown or cap are the same terms.
Crowns and caps can be made out of all-porcelain (which is glass), all gold, and there are different types of gold (base gold, semi-precious gold, or precious gold). The reason that there are different categories is that these materials have different costs and different characteristics. Most people in the dental profession would agree that the precious metal, or the higher the precious metal content, the kinder the restoration is to the tissue and surrounding bone, and the better characteristics of handling and wear over the long term. To confuse the consumer even more, many times we can use a combination of precious metal to porcelain, semiprecious to porcelain, or base metal to porcelain, and instead of using porcelain, which sometimes can be harder than natural tooth and cause wear, we can replace the porcelain with a composite or resin material. Years ago these resin materials stained heavily and were many times contraindicated; however, they were the only material we had thirty and forty years ago when doing cosmetic dentistry.
Today the resin materials, many times, are superior to porcelain, depending upon what we are trying to accomplish from a bite or occlusal standpoint. Crowns and bridges are generally referred to as types of restorations to fix teeth that are severely broken down. Generally, each tooth has five surfaces to it. When more that three surfaces of a tooth are broken or decayed, then many times a full-coverage crown or cap is the treatment of choice. When we use more than one crown or cap in an area and they are fused together, we refer to them as bridges. Generally speaking, these techniques have been around for a very long time and have proven the test of time. The disadvantage of these techniques is that many times we have to remove a lot of natural tooth structure in order to cover the tooth and maintain it with this specific shape, size, and contour. Over the last three to seven years new and improved techniques called bonded inlay/onlays have many times become a treatment of choice over the full crowns. The reason for this is that they are less invasive, they conserve more tooth structure, and because they are bonded to the patient's natural tooth, they offer superior cosmetics, esthetics, and many times strength. Again, depending upon the condition of the clinical tooth, the more tooth available, the more likely the inlay/onlay would be the treatment of choice. Again, as with the crowns, the inlay/onlay can be made out of all glass, all composite or resin-type material, or all gold, depending upon the clinical situation. The pictures that you are about to see are areas where veneers, crowns, caps, bridges, have been used to fix a variety of cosmetic and functional problems.
For more information, see our crowns and bridges page.
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