Pediatric crowns in Wheat Ridge

At Kid Focus Dentistry, we are not only dental providers but we are also parents. As parents, we understand the struggles of always wanting the best for our children, especially with regard to medical treatments. Because of this, our doctor always strives to provide the most conservative, safe, and adequately lasting restorations to each patient.

Unfortunately, the best option does not always mean a simple filling. Unlike adult teeth, baby teeth are smaller so they lack in their ability to accommodate large quantities of fillings. Also, fillings can cause a child’s tooth to be structurally unsound. In this case, our best recommendation would then be a crown.

Most parents only familiarity with crowns is when they were getting one of their own, so it is very natural for them to be nervous at the mention of crowns as a restorative option.

No worries parents, pediatric crowns are significantly different than that of an adult’s permanent crown.

• The procedure is significantly easier and shorter, not much longer than that of a filling.
• The procedure can be done in one appointment.
• There is also no need for yucky impressions.
• Best of all, these crowns are only meant to stay in the mouth until the baby’s tooth falls out: on average about 2‐3 Yrs.

Crown types for children:

Stainless steel crown

If a child needs a crown in the posterior (back) teeth, the SSC crown is our gold standard for most cases. SSC has multiple advantages:

• The first being that the stainless steel material is relatively inert to most allergies and relatively inexpensive.
• Secondly, as a child grows, their bite also constantly changes and a lot of grinding occurs. SSC has the ability to mold to changes in the bite, thus making it the most accommodating to a growing child.
• It is the most conservative option for saving tooth structure and most friendly to the healing process after placement.

Porcelain veneer crown

If your child needs a crown in an esthetic area (front area), we would recommend this type of crown.

• This is SSC along with porcelain fused to the esthetic area.
• We usually don’t recommend this crown in the back, because due to grinding and excessive force of mastication, porcelain has a high rate of chipping.
• However, these are great for the front and have a better success rate there since anterior teeth use less force.

Zirconia/all porcelain crown

This is a new type of crown that is growing in popularity, and due to its constraints, is great only for specific cases.

• We use caution against this type of crown because it requires more time for placement, thus the child has to be very compliant.
• Secondly, it is a lot bulkier and requires a lot more tooth structure to be taken away; which sometimes can compromise the nerve space in the tooth.
• Thirdly, when placing multiple crowns the patient cannot have tight spacing; since the crowns are already bulky.
• Lastly, it is not as friendly to gums as SSC.

We tend to recommend this crown for children who are getting the treatment done under general sedation, this way the success rate can be much more predictable.

Written By: Dr. Ngo 

If your child received a crown treatment please read the Post-Treatment instructions.