Dental crowns have been a mainstay in dentistry for the last hundred
years. In order for a crown to stay on (retention) it needs to have
sufficient height of the remaining tooth structure to cement to. In
addition, technologies of the past only involved porcelain fused to a
metal substructure. While this technique is still used today, obtaining
an acceptable aesthetic outcome involves placing the margins of the
crown under the gum tissue. Anytime we place a margin of a restoration
"under" the gums, we invite other problems. These include but are not
limited to:
- Swollen gums
- Bleeding gums
- "Bluish" gums
- Difficulty in cleaning the interface between the crown and the tooth
- Extreme difficulty in accessing the fit of the crown under the gum
- Decay in and around the margin of the tooth.