(918) 393-2518      |      8801 N 145th East Ave Owasso, OK 74055      |      

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Owasso Metal-Free Dentist

Are you searching for a dentist who can provide you with metal-free restorations? Dr. Heng Lim is a dentist who takes a whole-health approach to dentistry by designing and placing crowns, onlays, and other restorations that contain no metal.

Metal-Free Crowns with New Ceramics

Traditionally, metal has been used for crowns because of its strength. Pure porcelain crowns can easily break under the stress of normal chewing. But there are a couple of ways to provide a natural-looking crown without using any metal:

  • Porcelain can be used and bonded to the underlying tooth structure to give it added strength.
  • New ceramics such as lithium disilicate and zirconia are extremely strong. Zirconia has been called “ceramic steel,” and is strong enough to be used even in bridgework on back teeth.

Porcelain-covered metal crowns are problematic for several reasons:

  • Natural teeth are translucent. While the metal can be coated with an opaquer to block out the dark color, the crown can never be made to look perfectly natural.
  • Often, the metal core will show through at the crown margin, leaving a faint dark line underneath the gums which becomes more prominent as the gums recede.
  • Some people have sensitivities to nickel or other metals that are used in many metal crowns.
  • The porcelain coating can chip off to reveal unsightly dark spots.

 

A woman's smile is shown with four crowns on her upper front teeth that look chalky and fake because they are made of metal covered with porcelain. A metal-free dentist places all-porcelain crowns.
Teeth with porcelain-covered metal crowns look fake.

 

The same woman's teeth are shown again, but this time they have bee covered with all-porcelain crowns by a metal-free dentist.
The same teeth look perfectly natural once covered with all-porcelain crowns.

 

Tooth-Colored Crowns by a Metal-Free Dentist

For back teeth, where aesthetics is not as great a concern, Dr. Lim will either do a same-day crown made from high-strength lithium disilicate, or a crown from zirconia. Click here if you’re interested in reading more about same-day crowns.

While these crowns are extremely strong, since they are milled from blocks of material the laboratory technician is unable to build in subtle color variations to make a crown look perfectly natural. So for front teeth, Dr. Lim uses e.max crowns. These crowns have a core of lithium disilicate and are overlaid with porcelain to add those subtle aesthetic characteristics. The e.max crowns look so natural, even up close they are very difficult to tell from natural teeth. For patients interested in avoiding metals in their mouth and maximum biocompatibility, these crowns are ideal.

Would you like to restore your smile with a metal-free crown or bridge? A dental examination with Dr. Lim can get you started. He will examine your teeth and let you know which metal-free restorations can help you achieve the look you want.

Call our office or request an appointment online.