Crowns

A crown (often called a cap) is needed when a tooth has broken or a portion of it has broken; there are large old fillings or the tooth has been root treated.

Older crowns have a metal foundation and that is why your old crowns may have black lines, today we use new methods and fabricate crowns out of porcelain or ceramic.  These are free of metal but extremely strong.

On occasions however, at the very back of the mouth where forces are strong, we may still have to use metal lined crowns but rest assured we use porcelain around the margins so that teeth look as natural as possible but remain strong enough to withstand the bite.