Now that we worked on 3 crowns – upper molar, upper central incisor, and lower molar – let’s go back to some basic principles that will help you tackle any crown you may need to prepare, regardless of the type of crown or the tooth.

The problem with criticizing and checking a crown prep is that there are a lot of things to look for that you may forget some principles along the way or that everything may be rather confusing. However, the best way to critique your work is to look into your work’s different views: Occlusal, Buccal/Lingual and Proximal views. In this way, everything will be broken down into lists that will make everything easier and simpler.

By the end of the end of this section, you will get to see a checklist that will help you to get a hand on criticizing your work. So, it will be much easier for you to remember about the features that you must improve at for your next practice.

Anyway, with whatever crown you work on, the principles of crown preparation is still the same, they only differ on the types of margins to use and the amount of reduction. So by keeping in mind these principles, whatever tooth/crown that may be asked of you, you know what to do.

Regarding the dimensions or the amount of reduction, it actually varies from school to school. For example, a shoulder should have a 1.2mm width, some would say 1.5mm. But no matter, all of the dimensions that we have taught to you till date are ideal measurements that is applicable anywhere. If the school gives you guidelines of their crown features, then great, follow that. But if not then, stick to what you have learned with us so far.