Porcelain Crowns: 3 Things You Should Know

The emergence of porcelain crowns has significantly advanced the field of dental restorations. Today’s crowns are stronger, more reliable, and more aesthetically pleasing than ever before. Options such as all-porcelain, zirconia, IPS e.max, PFM, and PFZ are widely used in modern dentistry, each offering unique advantages while consistently delivering excellent aesthetics and long-lasting performance.

What are porcelain crowns?

Porcelain crowns are a type of dental restoration placed over natural teeth to restore their shape, size, and function. They are made from dental-grade porcelain—a ceramic material that closely resembles the color and translucency of natural teeth and offers high durability.

Porcelain crowns offer lifelike aesthetics, perfect for restoring front teeth

Designed to fully cover the visible portion of the tooth, porcelain crowns help protect damaged, weakened, or aesthetically compromised teeth, holding a dental bridge in place, or covering a dental implant during the final restoration phase. Thanks to their light-reflecting properties similar to natural enamel, porcelain crowns provide a highly natural appearance and can be custom-made to blend seamlessly with adjacent teeth.

Advantages and disadvantages of porcelain crowns

Porcelain crowns are one of our most recommended solutions for patients seeking both function and aesthetics. Made entirely of high-quality dental ceramic, these crowns are designed to mimic the look and feel of natural teeth, offering exceptional color matching, translucency, and a lifelike finish. They’re ideal for restoring front teeth or any tooth that plays a role in your smile.

Demonstrating the natural translucency and fit of custom-made porcelain crowns

Porcelain crowns are also biocompatible and metal-free, making them a great choice for patients with metal sensitivities or aesthetic concerns. Because they don’t contain any metal, there’s no risk of dark lines along the gum as seen with traditional metal-based crowns.

While porcelain is strong, it’s not as fracture-resistant as full metal or zirconia crowns, especially under heavy bite pressure. They may not be ideal for patients who grind their teeth (bruxism) unless combined with a protective nightguard. Porcelain crowns also require more tooth preparation, which is a consideration in cases with minimal remaining tooth structure.

What types of porcelain crowns?

All-Porcelain Crowns

All-porcelain crowns are renowned for their ability to closely replicate the natural shape and appearance of teeth. Their high translucency and precise shade matching make them an ideal choice for restoring front teeth, where aesthetics are a top priority.

In addition to their visual appeal, porcelain materials are considered highly biocompatible, which helps minimize the risk of allergic reactions or tissue irritation. This makes all-porcelain crowns a particularly safe option for patients with metal sensitivities, offering both beauty and peace of mind.

Showcasing the natural translucency of an all-porcelain crown, ideal for front teeth restorations

Emax Crowns

IPS E.max is the brand name of a durable ceramic crown made from lithium disilicate. This type of crown is highly regarded not only for its superior aesthetics but also for its resistance to chipping compared to other ceramic options, offering long-lasting performance.

Thanks to its outstanding strength and lifelike translucency, an E.max crown is an excellent choice for anterior teeth, where appearance matters most, especially in the visible smile zone.

High-aesthetic lithium disilicate crown designed for strength and beauty in anterior zones

Zirconia Crowns

Zirconia crowns have become increasingly popular in recent years due to their excellent biocompatibility and strong protective capabilities, all while offering a metal-free alternative. Zirconia is a durable material, resistant to chipping, cracking, and wear, capable of withstanding bite forces for long-lasting restorations.

Full-contour zirconia crown offering exceptional durability for posterior restorations

Currently, two types of zirconia are commonly preferred by dentists: full solid zirconia and multilayer zirconia. Full solid zirconia is ideal for posterior crowns due to its exceptional strength, boasting a flexural strength of up to 1200 MPa. This material is especially suitable for patients with bruxism. Multilayer zirconia, on the other hand, offers higher translucency and a softer white shade, with flexural strength between 590 and 720 MPa, making it ideal for anterior restorations. It can also be used for posterior crowns when sufficient space is available.

Both types of zirconia crowns at VTA are precisely fabricated using advanced CAD/CAM technology. This ensures a custom fit, reduces the risk of gaps or misalignment, and enhances overall comfort and function.

Digital workflow in progress for high-precision zirconia crown fabrication

Porcelain-Fused-to-Zirconia Crowns (PFZ crowns)

PFZ (Porcelain-Fused-to-Zirconia) crowns are a modern dental restoration that combines a strong zirconia core with an aesthetic porcelain overlay. This structure makes PFZ crowns an ideal choice for cases requiring a balance between durability and high aesthetics.

The inner zirconia core provides excellent strength, load-bearing capacity, and biocompatibility, minimizing the risk of reactions with the surrounding gum tissue. The outer porcelain layer is hand-layered to recreate natural tooth color, translucency, and surface details with remarkable accuracy. This makes PFZ crowns particularly suitable for restorations in the anterior region, where the smile plays a key role.

Porcelain-fused-to-zirconia crown offering enhanced aesthetics with a strong zirconia core

PFZ crowns offer exceptional aesthetics and eliminate the gray lines often seen at the gumline with traditional metal-based crowns. Since they are metal-free, they also reduce the risk of allergic reactions or irritation, making them a safe option for patients with metal sensitivities.

Porcelain-Fused-to-Metal Crowns (PFM crowns)

Porcelain-Fused-to-Metal (PFM) crowns are a type of dental restoration that has been widely used for many decades. They consist of a strong metal core on the inside and an aesthetic porcelain layer on the outside. This design allows the crown to offer both high durability and a natural appearance similar to real teeth.

Porcelain-fused-to-metal crown combines strength with proven long-term performance

The metal core is typically made from alloys such as cobalt-chromium, nickel-chromium, or, in some premium cases, precious metal alloys like gold. The porcelain layer is fused and firmly bonded to the metal surface, creating a restoration that is both strong and more aesthetic than full metal crowns.

PFM crowns are known for their excellent strength, making them particularly suitable for molars, which endure heavy chewing forces. Compared to high-end all-ceramic crowns, PFMs are generally more affordable, making them a practical choice for many patients. Additionally, their long-proven technology has earned the trust of many dental professionals.

In conclusion

Full porcelain crowns offer many benefits, making them an ideal choice for dental restorations, especially in the smile zone where aesthetics are a priority. Their combination of durability, superior biocompatibility, and a natural tooth-like appearance not only makes them one of the most preferred materials in modern dentistry but also significantly boosts patients’ confidence.

Porcelain crowns enhance both function and appearance for a confident smile

However, don’t let potential challenges of porcelain crowns stop you from providing high-quality services and products to your patients. Our team at VTA Dental Lab has the expertise and experience to deliver precisely milled crowns with a lifelike gloss and fast turnaround times.

Contact us today if you’d like to discuss a specific case in detail — our skilled technical team is always ready to support you.