Our office is conveniently located one block from the Friendship Heights Metro Stop on Wisconsin Ave in the Chevy Chase-Friendship Heights region. Because of our well-situated uptown location and our high-efficiency treatment regimen resulting from working directly with our own in-house technician, many downtown-area patients come to us at the beginning or end of their busy workday.
Crowns
Our Patients Smile for a Lifetime with Dental Crowns That Last for Over 35 Years
Our Top-Rated Bethesda & Washington DC Cosmetic Dentists & Prosthodontists Provide Custom Hand-Crafted Dental Crowns.
Patients come to our Washington DC cosmetic dental practice wanting dental restorations with crowns that are precision made and that will last for many years if not for a lifetime. Our cosmetic restoration specialists will determine the precise measurements needed and will fabricate custom dental crowns in our in-house dental lab. This means better quality, function, appearance and longevity for our patients, with our dental crowns lasting on average over 35+ years, compared to the average dental crown which is only five to ten years.
When & How Dental Crowns are Utilized
Dental crowns, also known as “caps,” are placed over teeth that have been compromised through trauma, infection, or decay. They are beneficial in a wide variety of situations. These situations include preventing decay or further decay of weak teeth, holding pieces of cracked or damaged teeth together, supporting teeth with a large filling when there isn’t much tooth structure left, covering misshapen teeth, or restoring teeth that have been worn down. Dental crowns are also used to support dental bridges or restore dental implants for patients who are missing one or more teeth and create cosmetic makeovers.
Before and After Dental Crown Washington DC Case Result by Dr Gerald Marlin
Our in-house custom-crafted dental crowns can dramatically improve your smile. See examples of actual patients who now confidently smile with their new dental crown & cosmetic treatments.
Patient: Wanted to repair visible teeth damage and chipped teeth
Patient: Wanted to fix smile damage due to teeth grinding, and the appearance of her ‘short teeth’
Patient: Wanted a more natural smile, suffered teeth discoloration & gaps between her teeth
Don’t you want to put your best smile forward? It starts by scheduling a consultation with our cosmetic dental specialists.
The dental crowns at Elite Prosthetic Dentistry are crafted on-site, enabling Dr. Gerald Marlin and Dr. George Talmazov optimal control over their creation. This helps us produce dental crowns that are precisely matched in size, shape, shade, and translucency to all adjacent teeth. Our in-house lab technician works directly with you. This allows your dental crowns to fit comfortably and blend seamlessly into your smile.
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watch: Dr. marlin Discusses Dental Crowns
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Watch: Why Is Your Dental Crown Failing or Why Has it Failed You?
We provide Zirconia, eMax, and Porcelain Fused to Noble Metal crowns, each of which has definite indications and contra-indications for its specific use. As a part of their detailed analysis, Dr. Marlin and Dr. Talmazov determine the best materials for your therapy and discuss them with you at your consultation.
Benefits of & Applications for Dental Crowns can include:
- Protect broken or severely decayed teeth
- Cover misshapen or severely discolored teeth
- Replace missing teeth
- Provide a more functional bite
- Repair functional chewing problems
- Strengthen a tooth following root canal
If you are in need of a dental crown or if you are simply overdue for a dental appointment, call Elite Prosthetic Dentistry at (202) 244-2101 to schedule a consultation with Dr. Marlin or Dr. Talmazov. We welcome dental patients from the Washington metropolitan area including Arlington, Alexandria, McLean, Bethesda, and Potomac, from around the country, and abroad. Our office is conveniently located one block from the Friendship Heights Metro Stop on Wisconsin Ave in the Chevy Chase-Friendship Heights region.
More Resourceful Information About
Dental Crowns
The Criteria for Creating the Best Dental Crowns
There are three different fabrication processes for dental crowns:
- Milled dental crowns that are created in a software program using stock images
- Dental crowns that are fabricated by a technician at the lab bench in a commercial laboratory
- Dental crowns that are hand-crafted by an in-house technician who directly works with each patient.
Dr. Marlin has had his own in-house technician, since 1985 to provide the best fitting, best looking dental crowns for his patients.
First and foremost, the fit must be inherently as tight as possible. That process begins with the restorative dentist’s tooth preparation being designed with “ideal”, inherent retention. Frequently, this requires the underlying tooth structure to be restructured by removing decay, replacing old fillings, and filling-in any resulting holes with new bonded composite restorations.
Next, a highly accurate impression is taken, and, finally, the crowns are fabricated with a precise fit to the tooth abutments.
At insertion, the restorative dentist customizes the crowns by adjusting contacts and shaping them to be biocompatible with the gingival (gum) tissue.
Once the crowns have been firmly seated, X-rays must be taken to assure that the fit of each one is correct, before any bite adjustment is performed. It is imperative that each of these steps be performed to achieve the best dental crown. If any crown had an incorrect bite, it can initiate pain and discomfort as a part of the TMJ syndrome.
In this digital era where stamped-out, milled crowns and veneers are routinely developed from virtual libraries in software programs, we take pride in hand-crafting all of our crowns and veneers in our in-house dental laboratory.
Your restoration will be developed using custom anatomic form to match your natural tooth shape or to blend with your facial pattern.
Additionally, we provide custom, internal shading (rather than just surface staining) to blend with your coloring followed by an overlay of specific translucent enamel porcelains to replicate the 3-Dimensional feel of a natural tooth.
Overall, with our in-house laboratory, we have total control of the quality and aesthetics of the crowns provided to our patients. This allows us to increase efficiency and reduce the number of office visits for you.
Restoring dental implants with crowns requires additional precision processes that begin before the implants are even inserted.
If you are uncertain of the status of your dental crowns or other restorations, call Elite Prosthetic Dentistry at (202) 244-2101 to schedule a consultation with Dr. Marlin or Dr. Talmazov. We welcome patients from the Washington metropolitan area including Arlington, McLean, Alexandria VA, Bethesda, and Potomac, from around the country, and abroad.
watch: Why Do Some Dental Crowns Look Unnatural or Fake, While Others Look Natural & Healthy?
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Common Dental Crown Problems – And Solutions
When any of the above steps are not adequately performed, the crowns can appear unnatural and not fit appropriately.
As an example, this patient came to us with crowns that were opaque and lacked natural translucency. Not only were her crowns monochromatic with no gradation of color, they lacked definition of character to make them match her lip line and facial pattern.
In addition, due to the crowns not adequately fitting the abutments, the teeth decayed within one year after their placement. (See yellow arrows)
In her first visit, we removed the decay, reshaped her abutment preparations, and inserted her new handcrafted temporary crowns, providing her with an instant smile makeover to match her lip line. After a root canal, we took impressions at her second visit, and then delivered her new permanent dental crowns in her third visit. We took final X-rays to confirm their precise fit. (See yellow arrows)
Dr. Marlin and Dr. Talmazov often work with patients to replace older or improperly placed dental crowns with more natural-looking crowns to give our patients beautiful healthy smiles.
The Porcelain Dental Crown Procedure with Dr. marlin
Placement of dental crowns takes two office visits. Designed with optimal aesthetics and function in mind, the dental crowns placed by our Washington D.C. prosthodontists are carefully crafted and meticulously placed to help ensure their long-term usefulness.
About Our On Site Dental Lab
At Elite Prosthetic Dentistry, we have maintained our own dental lab for over three decades. Here, our highly-trained lab technicians work directly with Dr. Marlin and Dr. Talmazov to produce the strongest and most pleasing dental crowns available.
We use an exclusive 3D-shading technique that allows our technicians to perfectly replicate the translucencies and internal/external color variances on your natural teeth. The end result is a crown that is entirely indistinguishable from those teeth surrounding it. This is simply not a possibility when your crowns are processed by someone who has never seen your actual smile and is, therefore, limited in mimicking the internal color of your natural teeth.
We have the most Advanced Digital Technology combined with the Ultimate in Craftsmanship. Our dental crown shading process is unique to our Washington D.C. dental practice and helps ensure that crowns created in our lab offer results that are durable, attractive, and long-lasting.
Contact Elite Prosthetic Dentistry Today!
If you are ready to schedule your appointment with our trusted, experienced, and caring prosthodontist, please call (202) 244-2101 today. We welcome patients from Chevy Chase, Bethesda, Silver Spring, Alexandria, Fairfax, Reston, and all surrounding communities.
Real Patient Results
When it comes to your smile, you deserve the best. Review our many satisfied patients’ incredible transformations by viewing our before and after gallery!
Dental Crowns in Washington DC- FAQS
The life expectancy of the typical dental crown is five to ten years. If the crown is milled in a CEREC or other CAD/CAM machine, the life expectancy can be slightly shorter. However, the dental crowns produced in our on-site lab have, with proper care, lasted for 35 years or more.
Our dental crowns are designed to last and are crafted to retain their strength and appearance long after other crowns may fail. In part, this is due to our ability to custom fabricate these restorations on-site, where Dr. Marlin and Dr. Talmazov have a direct hand in their creation. Our crowns tend to fit better, look more natural, and last longer than those created by third-party technicians who have never seen your actual smile.
While our process helps create dental crowns that are surprisingly durable, you will play a role in their longevity. Fortunately, not much special care is needed to keep crowns attractive and strong.
Intended to act as a new tooth, your dental crown should be cared for in the exact same manner to extend the duration of its usefulness. This includes:
- Brushing your teeth after every meal and snack
- Flossing at least once daily
- Visiting our office for routine cleanings and examinations
During your biannual visits for professional tooth cleanings, we can help you optimize your oral hygiene routine by making personal recommendations for toothbrush and toothpaste types, and provide daily care instructions based on your exact needs and ultimate oral health and beauty goals.
Having an on-site lab allows us to save you time. Crowns from practices that work with external labs have to be shipped. It can take several weeks for crowns to be created and returned under this process. Worse still, when these crowns don’t fit correctly or don’t meet patient needs, they have to be sent back and refabricated.
Crafting crowns on-site gives us optimal control over their strength, appearance, and speed of creation. This helps us place crowns that are perfectly sized, ideally shaped, and intricately shaded, better enabling us to produce smiles that look naturally beautiful and feel functionally strong.
We work with several insurance companies and will submit all charges to your insurance carrier for your reimbursement, because we are an out of network provider. We ask that you bring your insurance information with you to your appointment to give our patient coordinators all the information needed to submit your bill.
It is important to remember that insurance companies have very different goals than their clients. They are driven solely by the “bottom line” for profits, while the clients are seeking the highest quality, longest-lasting crowns. With artificially established low fees, they are not willing to pay the full price of a high-quality dental crown or any other restoration. Please check with your plan administrator to learn how much your policy will cover.
In addition to working with various insurance companies, we are happy to discuss financing options including in-house payment plans and healthcare credit cards such as the Lending Club. We also accept cash, checks, and most major credit cards. There is often a discount for cash and check payments when they are made in full at the time service is rendered. All of these things will be discussed in greater detail during your dental crown consultation at our Washington D.C. office.
When a crown is designed incorrectly, not only does it look unsightly, but it does not function properly. Incorrect design can irritate and damage the gum tissue as well as the surrounding bone, if it has not been adequately sculpted. Ultimately, the porcelain can also fracture.
If you have a poor fitting crown, call (202) 244-2101 to schedule a consultation with Dr. Marlin.
A dental crown is a tooth-shaped “cap” that is placed over a tooth to restore its shape and size, strength, and/or to improve its appearance. The crowns, when cemented into place, fully encase the entire visible portion of a tooth that lies at and above the gum line.
Dental crowns are beneficial in a wide variety of situations. These situations include preventing decay of weak teeth, holding pieces of cracked teeth together, supporting teeth with a large filling when there isn’t much tooth structure left, covering misshapen teeth, or restoring teeth that have been worn down.
While dental crowns are designed specifically to function and appear natural, and therefore not need special care, it is important to care for the tooth properly as it is still vulnerable to decay and gum disease. Be sure to continue good oral hygiene practices.
Fabricating a crown requires approximately two visits to our Washington DC dental office. Initially, we will remove decay, shape the tooth, take an impression, fit it with a temporary acrylic crown, and take an impression for the final crown.
On the subsequent visit, we will remove the temporary crown, custom fit and adjust the final crown and then final cement it.
When researching dental crowns you may come across the term ‘post’ and this is placed in a tooth treated with a root canal and acts as a ‘frame’ for the crown. The post can be crafted from plastic or metal and supports the crown. All root canal teeth should have a post and core restoration, followed by a crown, because they are more brittle, once the nerve (and blood vessels) in the canals have died.
Large fillings are an option for those who wish to forego dental crowns, however there is a risk with using a filling, if it is too large. It can actually fracture which would result in another treatment, such as root canal therapy.
If the porcelain is fabricated such that the colorations are developed inside the crown rather than with surface stains, and if the right amount of translucency is used, the tooth will look natural. Many of our patients say that even their closest friends cannot tell that they have new crowns.