Dental Crowns

Why this tooth needs a crown and not a filling

A filling stays in place because there is sound tooth around it taking the load. If a large part of the tooth has broken away, or the tooth has had root canal treatment and only thin walls are left, a filling has nothing to hold on to. Bite down on something hard and the tooth usually cracks — often down into the root, and a crack that deep means the tooth has to come out.

A crown wraps the whole tooth like a cuff, so chewing force spreads across the tooth instead of landing on one point. That is why most root-treated teeth should be crowned.

Read about root canal treatment →

Filling, inlay, onlay or crown?

These are four repairs to the same tooth. The only difference is how much of it gets covered. The less sound tooth is left, the more the repair has to wrap around.

• Filling. The dentist puts the material straight into the cavity and shapes it in your mouth. One visit. For small and medium cavities with solid tooth walls still standing around them.
• Inlay. Made in a laboratory and cemented into the hollow in the middle of the tooth. For a cavity too large to fill reliably, where the cusps — the points you chew with — are still intact.
• Onlay. Same idea, but it also covers one or more cusps that have broken or cracked. The middle ground between a filling and a crown.
• Crown. The tooth is reduced all round and a cap is cemented over the whole of it. For a tooth with little structure left, or one that has had root canal treatment.

The advantage of an inlay or onlay is that more of your healthy tooth stays where it is, because nothing is cut away all round. The trade-off is two visits and a higher price than a filling, since it is a laboratory-made piece like a crown.

We make inlays and onlays in ceramic only, at 15,000 THB per tooth — the same as an all-ceramic crown, because the work and the material are much the same.

Which one your tooth needs is decided from the X-ray and from how much tooth is actually left on the day. You hear which it is, and what it costs, before anything starts.

How many visits?

Two or three, if you do not need root canal treatment first.

• Visit 1 — prepare, take the impression, fit a temporary crown. All three happen on the same day. You go home with a temporary crown in place and you can chew on it normally.
• Visit 2 — fit the real crown. Five to seven days after the impression, the crown comes back from the lab. We try it in, check how it meets your other teeth, and cement it.

Why some cases need a third visit

We would rather say this plainly. Two things bring people back: the shade does not match, or the fit is not right. If the colour does not blend with the teeth next to it, or it feels high when you bite, we send it back to the lab.

The dentist will not cement a crown you are not happy with. It is going to be in your mouth for years. One more visit is better than looking at it every day and wishing it were different.

Which material?

Most of our patients currently choose zirconia, because it is both strong and tooth-coloured. Your dentist will go through the advantages and drawbacks of all of them and let you decide.

“Porcelain” and “ceramic” are the same material. They are two names for one thing. If a clinic abroad quoted you for a porcelain crown or a porcelain veneer, that is the all-ceramic option here. PFM is a different thing despite the word in its full name (porcelain fused to metal): it has a metal core inside with porcelain baked over the outside.

No single material is right for every case. A back tooth taking heavy load and a front tooth that has to blend with its neighbours need different things. The dentist looks at the position of the tooth, how your bite meets, and your budget, then explains the trade-offs and lets you choose.

The temporary crown is included

While the real crown is being made, over five to seven days, you always have a temporary crown to go home with. You never walk out with a prepared tooth exposed. The temporary is included in the crown price, not charged separately.

What can be added is a post, used only when very little tooth structure is left and a core is needed to hold the crown. The dentist tells you at the examination whether your case needs one, and what the total is, before any work starts.

If the whole tooth is gone

A crown needs a tooth to sit on. If the tooth has already been extracted, the options are a bridge — supported by the teeth on either side — or a dental implant, which replaces the root itself. Prices for both are in the full price list.

Prices

A dentist examines you and plans the treatment before anything starts. It takes about 20 minutes, and you hear the full cost before we begin. The examination is included in the cost of treatment; on its own it is 100 THB. If a filling or a scaling needs local anaesthetic, that is 100 THB.

See the full price list →

The dentists who do this work

• 
  Dr. Porploy Tanakeatpinyo“Dr. Khim” · Board certification from the Thai Dental Council in General Dentistryท.11957
• 
  Dr. Boonyanuch Suksawang“Dr. Jane” · M.Sc. (Dentistry), Chiang Mai University · 2025ท.15840

The number under each name is the dentist's licence from the Thai Dental Council, which you can check yourself.