Treatment

Dental crowns

A cap over the whole tooth, made to your bite and cemented on. Where a filling is patching and a veneer is facing, a crown is what holds a tooth together once there is not enough of it left to hold itself.

Visits: Two
In Istanbul: 4–6 days
Made: In our laboratory
Lifespan: 10–15 years

What it is

A crown is fitted when a tooth can no longer carry a bite on its own: after a large filling has failed, after a root canal on a back tooth, after a fracture, or where wear has taken the tooth down. The remaining tooth is shaped, an impression or a scan is taken, and a cap is made to sit over it and take the load the tooth used to take.

The choice that matters is what it is made of, and it is a trade-off between strength and light. Metal is the strongest and looks like metal. Full ceramic is the most convincing and is kept where the bite allows it. Zirconia sits between them and is why the argument is less sharp than it used to be — it is strong enough for a molar and can be made to look like a tooth.

The material is chosen for the tooth, not for the invoice. A molar and a front tooth are different problems.
Prof. Dr. Coşkun Yıldız

Which one you need

Zirconia
Very strong and metal-free. Monolithic zirconia for a molar that takes a heavy bite; layered with porcelain where it has to be seen as well as used.
Anywhere, and most back teeth
e.max and full ceramic
Lithium disilicate: translucent the way enamel is, so light passes through it instead of stopping at it. The most convincing crown there is, and kept off the heaviest bites.
Front teeth
Porcelain fused to metal
A metal core with porcelain over it. Long-serving, and the reason it is used less now is the thin dark line that can appear at the gum as the years pass.
Where strength has to come first
Gold and metal alloy
The most durable crown and the kindest to the tooth opposite, because it wears at the same rate enamel does. It looks like what it is, which is the only reason it is not used everywhere.
Back teeth, out of sight
Temporary crowns
Resin, made chairside, worn while the real one is being built. It protects the prepared tooth and lets you eat and be seen — it is not meant to last and is not priced as though it were.
The days in between

What happens to you

Two visits, and a wait at home in between

Before you fly
A plan and a price
Photographs, and any X-ray your own dentist has. You are told how many crowns, in which material, and what it costs before a flight is booked.
Day 1
Preparation
Under local anaesthetic the tooth is shaped and scanned digitally. Where a root canal or a build-up is needed first, it happens now — a crown over an untreated problem simply seals it in.
Day 1
Temporaries
You leave with temporary crowns the same day and eat normally, carefully, while the permanent ones are made.
Days 2–5
The laboratory
Milled, layered and glazed in our own laboratory in the building — which is what makes a shade adjustment an afternoon rather than a second trip.
Day 5–6
Fitting
Tried in, checked on the bite and against the teeth beside them, adjusted, and only then cemented.

Before you fly
A plan and a price
Photographs, and any X-ray your own dentist has. You are told how many crowns, in which material, and what it costs before a flight is booked.
Day 1
Preparation
Under local anaesthetic the tooth is shaped and scanned digitally. Where a root canal or a build-up is needed first, it happens now — a crown over an untreated problem simply seals it in.
Day 1
Temporaries
You leave with temporary crowns the same day and eat normally, carefully, while the permanent ones are made.
Days 2–5
The laboratory
Milled, layered and glazed in our own laboratory in the building — which is what makes a shade adjustment an afternoon rather than a second trip.
Day 5–6
Fitting
Tried in, checked on the bite and against the teeth beside them, adjusted, and only then cemented.

Before you fly
A plan and a price
Photographs, and any X-ray your own dentist has. You are told how many crowns, in which material, and what it costs before a flight is booked.
Day 1
Preparation
Under local anaesthetic the tooth is shaped and scanned digitally. Where a root canal or a build-up is needed first, it happens now — a crown over an untreated problem simply seals it in.
Day 1
Temporaries
You leave with temporary crowns the same day and eat normally, carefully, while the permanent ones are made.
Days 2–5
The laboratory
Milled, layered and glazed in our own laboratory in the building — which is what makes a shade adjustment an afternoon rather than a second trip.
Day 5–6
Fitting
Tried in, checked on the bite and against the teeth beside them, adjusted, and only then cemented.

Before you fly
A plan and a price
Photographs, and any X-ray your own dentist has. You are told how many crowns, in which material, and what it costs before a flight is booked.
Day 1
Preparation
Under local anaesthetic the tooth is shaped and scanned digitally. Where a root canal or a build-up is needed first, it happens now — a crown over an untreated problem simply seals it in.
Day 1
Temporaries
You leave with temporary crowns the same day and eat normally, carefully, while the permanent ones are made.
Days 2–5
The laboratory
Milled, layered and glazed in our own laboratory in the building — which is what makes a shade adjustment an afternoon rather than a second trip.
Day 5–6
Fitting
Tried in, checked on the bite and against the teeth beside them, adjusted, and only then cemented.

Questions

Crown or veneer?

A veneer faces a healthy tooth; a crown covers a compromised one. If the tooth is sound and the problem is how it looks, a veneer takes less of it. If it is cracked, heavily filled or root-treated, a crown is the one that protects what remains.

Does the tooth underneath still decay?

Yes. A crown protects the tooth from breaking, not from decay — the margin at the gum is a real edge and it needs flossing like any other. Most crowns that fail late, fail there.

Will it match my other teeth?

A single crown beside natural teeth is the hardest case in the laboratory, and the reason the laboratory is in the same building: the ceramist can see the tooth rather than a photograph of it.

How long do they last?

Ten to fifteen years is the usual figure and many go well beyond it. What ends one is decay at the margin, a fracture in the tooth beneath, or grinding — and a night guard answers the last of those.

Is it painful?

Preparation is done under local anaesthetic. The tooth can be sensitive for a few days after, and a tooth that was already painful before you came usually needed the root canal that goes with it.

Patients

The people who already came

Six of our patients, filmed at the clinic and talking about their own treatment. They are the clinic’s patients rather than any one procedure’s — what each of them had is in the film.