Dental Crowns Rapid City

Crowns vs. Fillings

Why do you need a crown instead of a filling? Crowns will be suggested by Dr. Anderson when a tooth fracture is suspected or sometimes simply when the filling would be too large to fabricate inside your mouth. The limitation for a filling is size. When fillings become too large or unsupported, they can fail sooner than desired due to limitations on strength in the material and polymerization shrinkage.

Same-Day Crowns

Life is busy enough without having to make multiple trips to the dentist over several days. At our office, we are proud to offer precisely fabricated in-house, same-day crowns.

We scan your mouth with digital 3D camera technology instead of using gooey conventional impression trays. A custom restoration is digitally designed to fit your unique smile while you watch us create it. Your restoration is produced in our office with our state-of-the-art-milling unit. The final, natural-looking restoration is placed in your mouth within just a couple of hours

Your restorations will also look and feel completely natural. Digital precision means a perfectly comfortable fit. Aesthetically, your metal-free restoration will match the look of your teeth for a beautiful and natural smile.

Inlays and Onlays

Inlays are fillings fabricated outside of the mouth and then cemented in place. Statistically, an inlay will last much longer than a filling. Because inlays are fabricated outside of the mouth, they are more stable long-term. One of the issues associated with all fillings is polymerization shrinkage. All filling material upon setting shrinks and can contribute to marginal leakage. The larger the filling, the more of this we can expect.

This is one of the biggest advantages of inlays, onlays, and crowns; the outside-of-mouth fabrication creates a stable material that does not shrink in the mouth. Inlays are a superior way to place a filling-like restoration. Inlays are more time consuming and compare to a crown in price.

Onlays are sometimes referred to as a ¾ crown. Instead of covering your entire tooth or all of your cusps with a crown, sometimes it is advantageous to conserve tooth structure and place an onlay instead of a full crown. We will always try to preserve tooth structure for you, and provide you with a restoration that strengthens your tooth. Most teeth that need crowns end up getting full coverage, but there are definitely exceptions that benefit from less coverage and conserved tooth structure.