What is a "Temporary Crown"? Why Do You Need One?

If you’re getting a porcelain crown or all-ceramic crown, your dentist will first grind down your natural tooth 360 degrees to make space for the final crown’s thickness. That means, between the day your tooth is prepped and when you get your permanent crown, you’ll need to wear a temporary crown—and trust me, it’s not just a placeholder. It does three really important jobs that keep your mouth healthy and your treatment on track.

1. Keeping Your Prepped Tooth Safe

No matter if your tooth still has its nerve (we call that a “vital” tooth) or if it’s had a root canal (a “non-vital” one), that ground-down tooth needs protection—and a temporary crown is how you get it.

• For teeth with nerves: When the outer enamel is sanded off, the softer dentin underneath is exposed. Without a temporary crown, every sip of hot coffee, bite of ice cream, or even a tangy lemon drop will zing right to the nerve, making your tooth super sensitive. Worse, bacteria in your mouth can sneak through tiny tubes in the dentin into the pulp chamber, which might lead to a painful infection.

• For teeth without nerves: The tooth becomes pretty fragile after a root canal. A temporary crown acts like a shield, so you don’t accidentally chip or crack the remaining tooth when you’re chewing something crunchy, like nuts or chips. Both Chinese dental lab and WM dental lab always remind dentists: skipping this step can ruin the whole process of getting a permanent crown later.

2. Holding the “Space” for Your Permanent Crown

Here’s something most people don’t know: your teeth aren’t totally fixed—they shift a little every day. When your dentist grinds down a tooth, it upsets the natural balance in your mouth. The teeth next to it or the one opposite it will start to slowly move into that newly created gap, just like how adjacent teeth tilt into a space left by a missing tooth.

The problem? Permanent crowns—whether porcelain or metal—are made with super precise measurements, usually by labs like WM dental lab or other professional Chinese dental lab. If that gap shrinks even a little, the permanent crown won’t fit right. It might feel too tight at the edges, or when you bite down, it’ll hit first (we call that a “high bite”).

Adjusting the crown only helps so much: grind down the porcelain too thin, and it’ll chip easily. Grind a metal crown too much, and it’ll wear through when you chew. Sometimes, dentists end up having to grind the healthy opposing tooth to make the crown fit—and that’s bad news, because it removes the protective enamel and makes that tooth sensitive too. A good temporary crown stops all that by keeping the gap exactly where it needs to be.

3. Keeping You Looking Like “You”

Let’s be real—teeth are a big part of how we look. You can’t go a day (or a week!) without talking, smiling, or eating in front of people, and masking up to hide a ground-down tooth gets old fast. Whether it’s one tooth or several, grinding them down makes them look small and uneven—totally not the look anyone wants, especially if you’re getting a crown because you want your smile to look better.

The wait for a permanent crown is usually 1 to 2 weeks, which is longer than it sounds. A temporary crown fixes that by matching the shape and color of your natural teeth as closely as possible, so no one even notices you’re in the middle of treatment. Both Chinese dental lab and WM dental lab get this—they don’t just make temporary crowns to work well; they make them to look natural too, so you can feel confident while you wait for your final crown.