Restorative Dentistry
All Ceramic Crowns in Los Angeles
The one that disappears into the smile.
Ceramic is the material of choice when a crown has to look like the tooth it replaced. Smile LA Downtown Modern Dentistry makes them to match the color and translucence of your natural teeth.
The material
Why ceramic for a front tooth
Natural enamel is slightly translucent — light passes into it and scatters, which is why a real tooth never looks like a flat block of color. Ceramic behaves the same way. A crown with a metal core cannot, because the metal stops the light dead, and the result reads as opaque beside its neighbors even when the shade has been matched exactly. That difference is easy to miss in a photograph and obvious across a table, which is why it matters most on the teeth that show when you talk. It is also why we take the shade with the tooth in front of us rather than from a chart: translucence has to be matched as carefully as color, and the two are not the same judgment. Everything else — the fit, the bite, the way it is cemented — is the same as any other crown.
- Metal-free Nothing under the ceramic to block light or show as a dark line at the gum.
- Matched to your teeth Color and translucence both, which is why we take the shade with the tooth in front of us.
- Biocompatible The same argument that applies to tooth-colored fillings over amalgam.
Where it stops
Where another material may be better
Ceramic’s strength is its appearance. At the back of the mouth, where the load is greatest and nobody sees the tooth, zirconia is usually the better answer, and in some cases gold still is. We recommend per tooth rather than per patient.
How it is made and fitted
The same four steps as any crown: consultation, preparation of the tooth, digital impressions, and placement. See dental crowns for the process in full, and crowns and bridges for how crowns compare with bridges.
All Ceramic Crowns FAQ
- Why choose ceramic over other materials?
- Because light passes through it much as it does through natural enamel, so it looks like a tooth rather than a cap on one. That matters most on a tooth that shows.
- Will it show a dark line at the gum?
- No. That line comes from the metal core in older crown types, and an all-ceramic crown has none.
- Is ceramic strong enough for a back tooth?
- Zirconia is usually the better answer where the chewing load is greatest. We choose the material tooth by tooth.
- Will it match my other teeth?
- Yes — the shade and translucence are matched to the teeth around it.
