Temporary crowns – why and when?

Temporary crowns are needed in the treatment when the interval between visits is longer than a day and/or covering the prepared tooth with a temporary filling is not practical or indicated.

In general, temporary dental crowns are suitable for short-term use (not for more than 3-5 months), because the material they are made of is not as strong as the materials used to make the final dental crowns.

Temporary crowns can break over time. This usually happens when temporary crowns are kept in the mouth for an extended period of time and this situation is not covered by the warranty.
Temporary crowns will never be as aesthetically pleasing as final crowns because the material does not allow it. Compared to ceramic/zirconium, plastic is never aesthetically that beautiful or natural-looking as a material.

But this is not important as the purpose of temporary crowns is:

• protect the prepared (polished) tooth tissue
• maintain and shape the tissue surrounding the prepared tooth – the mucosa
• restore the tooth’s original appearance as an interim stage of the treatment
• evaluate and get used to a new aesthetic smile, if part of the treatment involves changing the shape of the tooth for the purpose of changing the aesthetics of the height of the occlusion.

Usually, temporary crowns are made of plastic by using different methods:

• First, a dentist takes an imprint of the mouth, which us then filled with the material to make a temporary crown;
• An imprint is taken from a Wax Up – (digitally modeled altered image of the tooth/teeth and the model printed in a 3D printer) and filled with the material to make a temporary crown;
• Temporary crowns that are intended for longer-term use are designed on a computer and milled out of a block of temporary crown material (PMMA) in a milling machine.