Crafting Beautiful White Smiles

If your child needs a filling and you are worried that the silver color of the filling would be visible and take a piece of your child’s beauty, we are here to tell you that there is no reason for your concern. Why? Because we have Dr. Yasmin, our own tooth fairy in charge of crafting beautiful white smiles for your lovely children and making sure they leave the office beautiful and healthy.

If a child develops deep cavities in primary teeth that need filling or a root canal, or has a chipped tooth that cannot be fixed with filling, Dr. Yasmin, our pediatric dentist will recommend using a special crown for children’s teeth to restore that healthy smile.

Dental crowns or tooth caps are used if your child’s primary tooth decay is beyond repair with a filling (the filling might fall off over time- as short as months), the tooth is chipped or it hasn’t grown completely and the tooth needs to be covered with a secured material to have a prolonged life. Some primary teeth are meant to last till your child is 11 or 12 and as a caring, great pediatric dentist it is our job to make sure your little ones get to keep them as long as possible.

There are different dental crowns out there and each is suitable for a different treatment. If you are wondering if it’s necessary to put crowns on baby teeth, the answer is ‘YES’!

Here is what you need to know about dental crowns.

Traditionally, dental crowns were made of stainless steel, giving the tooth a silver color. You must have seen them before. They were usually placed on the back teeth. Stainless steel crowns cap the tooth completely and they are hard to lose or damage. Plus they last a very long time until the tooth falls on its own at the age of 12!

Understandably, parents don’t really appreciate stainless steel crowns, as they want what’s not only the best, but also the most beautiful option for their child, so the silver color is not their first choice. In addition, more and more parents are conscious about the use of metals in their kids’ mouths.

The good news is that nowadays, stainless steel crowns are losing their popularity thanks to the new technology. Now your beautiful child can have a ceramic made crown called Zirconia Crown or White Crown.

Zirconia crowns are made of ceramic (just like the zirconia stones we use in our jewelry). They are the latest and the most popular crowns these days. They are aesthetically the best option for kids as they blend with the natural color of the teeth and become almost impossible to detect. The ceramic material of zirconia crowns is durable and it doesn’t chip or lose its colors over time.

Isn’t that what you want for your child? A great dental solution that doesn’t affect the look of your child when they open their mouth to laugh hard! What’s even better, it is a drama free treatment that finishes within 10-15 minutes and if combined with a laughing gas, your child will be laughing the entire time and walk out with a big, beautiful and bright smile.

• • Great looks: Zirconia is naturally white so it blends really well with the other teeth making them a great option for children. Also, Zirconia is translucent, meaning it will mimic the translucency of the rest of the teeth. Zirconia crowns do not have metal lining so if used on the front teeth of children it will not change their beautiful smiles. What more could one ask from a crown?
  • Biocompatibility: So far, there has never been a report on allergy caused by Zirconia crowns as the material is never rejected by the human body. Being biocompatible, it means Zirconia crowns are safe to be in the mouth for a long time, especially for children with autism or any child with special needs.
  • Biological dentistry: Zirconia crowns are the choice for a functional medicine conscious parent. It is a biological/ biocompatible metal, with no mercury and no BPA. They are approved for hip replacements! There is no need to wonder about heavy metal toxicity due to a dental filling in your child’s mouth anymore.
  • Toughness: In terms of material, Zirconia crowns are the strongest crowns out there making them the most suitable option for children. So, you don’t have to worry about your child biting on an apple or any hard object.

Now that we know why pediatric dentists recommend Zirconia crowns, let’s talk a little bit about how to take care of them and how much they cost.

There are different brands of Zirconia crowns available in the market, but at My Pedia Clinic in Dubai we only work with the best brand called EZ Crowns by Sprig Oral Health Technologies. Sprig Oral Health Technologies is the market leader in new and advanced dental crown solutions. EzCrowns are fully-white prefabricated ceramic crowns that are specially designed for children. We know that finding out that your child has a deep cavity might come to you as a shock, especially if you haven’t heard of dental crowns before.

At MyPedia Clinic, our aim is to make the process as short and comfortable as possible to restore baby teeth with white crowns in as little as 15 mins (two crowns or more!). Even general anesthesia for toddlers to fix their teeth or complete dental rehabilitation under general anesthesia for kids can take as little as one hour to place an entire arch of white crowns as opposed to 3 hours or more in other pediatric dentistry offices.

The basic, stainless steel crowns are a little bit more expensive than fillings, but less expensive than Zirconia crowns. Zirconia crowns are a new technology, they look beautiful and pearly, they are more durable and they are slightly on the more expensive side.

The benefits of Zirconia Crowns are that they help us do the treatment once, do it well and not need to repeat them. Fillings can break and if we need to numb the child and do a root canal and then a filling and having to repeat the entire process every three to six months, that is a lot of trouble that the child really doesn’t need. Crowns can be a great substitute for poor fillings or poor dental work as they are more durable. Just imagine if a 2 year old gets a crown, he or she can enjoy eating on that tooth until the age of 12! Amazing, right?

Did you know that even kids as young as one year old can get crowns on their baby teeth? In this case, the crown will stay with the baby tooth and the child will lose it when the baby tooth falls out naturally!