Apgujeong Station Dental: Retreating an Old, Awkward All-Ceramic Crown

Hello, I'm Park Jonguk, director of Apgujeong Station Dental, Dream Dental Clinic.

When a tooth undergoes 'nerve treatment' — its proper name is root canal treatment —

a crown is often needed afterward.

Molars bear a lot of chewing force,

and when root canal treatment is done due to severe decay or a broken tooth,

the tooth becomes structurally weaker,

so it can chip while chewing,

or in severe cases, even split.

That's why a crown is essential after root canal treatment on a molar.

For front teeth, that's not always the case.

Even if root canal treatment was done for some reason,

front teeth don't bear nearly as much force as molars,

so unless there's discoloration or a break,

sometimes only root canal treatment

and internal (non-vital) whitening to prevent discoloration are done, without a crown.

But if the discoloration or tooth destruction is severe,

a crown becomes necessary.

In that case, an all-ceramic crown is used for the front tooth.

As the name suggests, the entire crown is ceramic...

This distinction mattered a lot 10 to 20 years ago,

but now even molars are treated with all-ceramic crowns,

so there's almost no tooth-colored crown these days that isn't all-ceramic.

Occasionally, even patients who received all-ceramic crown treatment on a front tooth

believe they had veneer treatment instead,

and this misunderstanding probably arises because the dentist didn't explain the treatment in enough detail.

The patient had received all-ceramic crown treatment on her front teeth a long time ago.

The problem was that the teeth were far too opaque,

with no natural feel to them at all.

We decided to redo the treatment to make them more natural and beautiful.

We analyzed the various issues

and had to establish a plan for how to proceed with treatment.

For more on the features of veneers and all-ceramic crowns at our clinic, Apgujeong Station Dental, Dream Dental Clinic,

please see the link below.

We removed the all-ceramic crown for retreatment.

So much of the tooth had been reduced

that we were a bit surprised,

but if the tooth had chipped or broken in the past

and had been treated for it, this kind of case is quite common,

so it may well have been the best treatment available at the time.

The problem was that the tooth had discolored quite severely.

At Apgujeong Station Dental, we proceed with retreatment while whitening as much as possible to reduce the discoloration.

We remove as much of the discoloration as possible through whitening before proceeding with treatment.

This is how the treatment was completed.

The tooth color matches a natural tooth,

and translucency was given to express a young, beautiful tooth.

By expressing even the texture of the tooth surface,

we achieved a level of detail so fine that even a dentist would struggle to tell

whether it's a natural tooth or an all-ceramic crown.

Through the retreatment of the front-tooth all-ceramic crown,

we completed a far more beautiful set of teeth.

Natural beauty

Since 2003, Apgujeong Station Dental, Dream Dental Clinic