Here's how broken teeth get the royal treatment!

• Crowns
  A crown is defined as the top part of almost anything. In your mouth, a crown is the enamel-covered part of a tooth which can handle up to 900 pounds of pressure per square inch. While crowns are the strongest, most worked-out area, they are also the most susceptible to decay, cracking, chipping, and dental restorations. When a tooth is fragile enough to break- due to the large old filling, new decay or has had an endodontic procedure ("root canal") performed it needs a replacement "crown". A fabricated crown, also called cap, fit over the existing tooth which is reduced by a dentist to the shape and size necessary to support the final restoration.
  
• Bridges
  Sometimes people are missing teeth for genetic reasons, trauma, severe decay or gum disease. Bridges are critical for keeping the remaining teeth from drifting and the support of the facial muscles. If a span of teeth missing, it can be bridged. Bridges are designed to float prosthetic teeth (called pontics) between the prepared natural teeth (called abutments) or dental implants which serve as their anchors.
  
• Crowns and Bridges can be made of precious metal (usually used far back in the mouth), a combination of metal and porcelain, or ceramic materials. They are built in the dental laboratory by coating the metal or ceramic substructure by several layers of porcelain and firing each layer in a kiln to achieve the strength, shape and luster of a natural tooth.
  
• If you are getting a crown or a bridge, you are in for two and sometimes three or four dental visits that last about an hour each. At the initial appointment teeth are prepared to the desired shape, then an impression of the reduced teeth is taken and temporary crown or bridge is made. The impression is send to the lab, accompanied by color recipe, so the replacement restorations can be fabricated there. This generally takes two weeks.