Dental Health Topics

Crown - Prefabricated Stainless Steel, Primary - 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 placed over your child's primary tooth is constructed of stainless steel and completely covers the entire remaining portion of the tooth.

Unlike custom-made crowns used on permanent teeth, stainless steel crowns are pre-made (or, pre-fabricated) by a firm that specializes in providing this type of restorative dental product to dentists.

The use of such a crown protects the primary tooth from further decay, and also saves the space for the permanent tooth that will arrive at a later date.
 
Stainless steel crowns are used on primary molars, not front-facing teeth, and come in a variety of shapes and sizes that the dentist will experiment with during the crown placement procedure.
 
To prepare for this type of crown, a dentist will first remove any decayed or weakened areas of the tooth, and reduce its overall shape to accommodate the crown.

The dentist will then test the different sized crowns on your child's teeth until the correct size is found.

Next, further adjustments may be made to the crown itself to achieve a secure fit. Once the dentist is satisfied with the fit of the crown, and the child's bite, the crown will be cemented in place. 

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