Dental Health Topics

Crown - Resin (Lab) - Dental Procedure Code Description

The term crown describes the portion of your tooth that extends above the gumline - in other words, the portion of the tooth that can be seen in a healthy mouth. 

It is also used more colloquially to describe the dental procedure of having a prosthetic crown placed over a decayed, chipped, cracked, or otherwise damaged tooth.
 
With this dental procedure code, the prosthetic crown fitted over the tooth is made entirely of composite synthetic resin made off-site in a dental laboratory.

Synthetic resins are liquid materials that can be converted into a permanent hardened material, with acrylic polymer and polymethyl methacrylate being the two most commonly used in dentistry.

An all resin crown is less expensive than some other crowns, and yields excellent cosmetic results. For this reason, an all resin crown is typically used to repair decay on teeth at the front of the smile-zone.
 
While affordable, this type of crown lacks the supportive noble metals that strengthen a porcelain fused to metal crown, and may be more prone to fracture than some other crown types. A full resin crown also requires the removal of more of the healthy portion of the tooth to create a strong bond.
 
To prepare for this type of crown, a dentist will first remove any decayed or weakened areas of the tooth, reducing its overall shape to accommodate the crown. 

A mold of your bite will then be made, so the custom crown can be fabricated off-site at a dental lab. If desired, a temporary crown can be fitted until the custom crown is completed.  
 
Once the custom crown arrives at the dentist's office, any temporary crown used as a place-holder will be removed, and you will be fitted with the new crown.

To look up and find more CDT dental codes from the American Dental Association, please visit our complete Dental Procedure Code Library.