A post and core crown is a type of dental restoration required where there is an inadequate amount of sound tooth tissue remaining to retain a conventional crown. A post is cemented into a prepared root canal, which retains a core restoration, which retains the final crown.

Structure

A post and core consists of two parts :

The Post

The post is a small rod, usually metal, that is inserted into the root space of the tooth and protrudes from the root a couple of millimeters. The post is then used to hold the core or a filling in place.

Because the post is inserted into the root canal, a post and core can only be made for a tooth that has had root canal treatment.

The Core

The core replaces missing tooth structure in preparation for making a new dental crown. Normally, a dental core can be directly built up from composite materials without a post to hold it in place.

However, a dental post can be used to help to anchor the core to the tooth. In this case, the core is generally made off metal alloys and the device is called post and core.

The core is then utilized to hold a dental crown in place. The crown can be a single unit crown or a retainer crown for a dental bridge.

A post and core is indicated when a large part (or all) of a tooth's original crown structure has been lost. The crown structure can be damaged either due to the progression of dental decays or because of a tooth trauma.