Empress Crowns- Fit for Royalty

By Deirdre E. Mueller, editor

A new system in the manufacture of porcelain crowns, called Empress, allows a porcelain crown to be made without the metal understructure. Typically porcelain crowns are made by bonding the porcelain to a metal support in a process called Porcelain Fused to Metal (PFM). The drawback is that unlike a natural tooth that allows light to pass through it, the metal support underneath blocks out the light. This can give the crown an opaque and lifeless look. While there previously have been systems for making porcelain crowns that do away with the metal support, most have proven to wear poorly and/or break prematurely.

The Empress system, unlike its predecessors, has developed a method of making a porcelain crown without metal that is both durable and strong. Since the crown is made entirely out of porcelain, light is able to pass through just like a real tooth giving a more natural look. However, the Empresscrown is still not as strong as a PFM crown. Therefore, we use PFM crowns on back teeth and for bridgework for the added strength the metal support lends. But for the front of the mouth where esthetics are important, and the teeth do not need to be as strong, Empress crowns are very effective. In addition, since Empress crowns are made entirely out of porcelain, there is no risk of having metal edges showing that sometimes appear with PFM if the gum recedes.