A stainless steel crown is the sturdy, silver-colored cap our practice uses to protect a back molar.

In kid words

"If a back tooth needs extra protection, we can cover it with a shiny silver crown that fits snugly over the top, like a tiny suit of armor." Plenty of kids think a silver tooth looks pretty cool, almost like a badge worth showing off. It does not change how the tooth chews, it just gives it some extra strength for the years ahead.

The parent version

A stainless steel crown is a pre-made metal cap fitted over a tooth that needs more support than a filling alone can give it, often once a deep cavity has been repaired or a pulpotomy has already settled a hurting tooth. Crowns at our office follow one simple rule: durable stainless steel for back molars, natural-looking resin for front teeth, since the two ends of the mouth do very different jobs.

Because a stainless steel crown is fitted to a baby tooth, it is not meant to be permanent the way an adult crown might be. The baby tooth underneath still follows its own ordinary timeline, and the crown simply comes along for that ride. Whether a particular tooth needs one at all is a decision your pediatric dentist makes after an exam.

Where you might hear it at our office

A stainless steel crown tends to come up on our restorative dentistry page, usually as one option further along the ladder of repairs, past a simple filling. Many are pre-formed in standard sizes and fitted to the tooth at the same visit, rather than built from scratch in an outside lab.

If your child comes home talking about a new silver tooth, that pride is worth celebrating right along with them. Another word from a visit can always be looked up in the rest of the Kids' Dental Dictionary.

Related words

Crown. Pulpotomy. Molar.