Restorative Dentistry
Dental Crowns in Bloomington, IN
A cracked tooth or a filling with more filling than tooth left gets capped and held together at our E. Buick Cadillac Blvd office. We mill same-day CEREC ceramic crowns here — whether your tooth is a candidate is something we tell you at the visit, not on a web page.
- Same-day CEREC crowns milled on site
- Our founding office, 2019
- Friday morning appointments
CEREC in the office
Ceramic crowns milled here, so some cases finish in one visit.
Open Friday mornings
The only Bloom Dental office with Friday clinical hours.
Specialists in house
Root canal work and implants handled by our own doctors.
Insurance and membership
Most major carriers, plus a plan if you have no coverage.
Straight Answer First
What a Dental Crown Does, and When Bloomington Patients Need One
A dental crown is a custom cap that covers the whole tooth, holds what is left of it together, and puts back its shape and its place in your bite. Dental crowns in Bloomington, IN are what we reach for when a tooth is too broken, too worn or too heavily filled for another filling to hold. The crown does the job the outer tooth structure used to do.
The usual reasons are ordinary ones. A tooth cracks on something hard. An old filling has grown over the years until there is more filling than tooth around it. A cusp snaps off. A tooth that has had root canal treatment needs protecting, especially a molar. A bite worn flat by grinding needs its height rebuilt. And a crown is also the visible top of a dental implant, the part you actually chew with.
Bloomington sends us two very different people with the same broken tooth. One is on a semester clock: an IU student, a grad researcher, someone on staff at IU Health Bloomington Hospital, and the question is always whether the tooth can be handled before finals or before they leave town. The other has lived in Monroe County for twenty years, has fillings from the nineties, and is watching them start to fail one at a time.
Both get the same approach. We look, we image, we tell you what the tooth actually needs, and we say which route yours takes before we start. More on how we do crowns and bridges across all seven Bloom Dental offices.
Material and Lifespan
What the Crown Is Made Of, and What Decides How Long It Lasts
Two questions come up at every crown appointment. Here are both answers without the sales gloss.
Teeth that show
Front teeth and premolars get tooth-colored ceramic, shade-matched to the teeth either side of it. Bring up anything you want changed about the color at the scan appointment, while it can still be changed.
Teeth that do the chewing
Back teeth are a trade-off between how a material looks and how it stands up to force. Your dentist walks through the options for your specific tooth. We make no brand claims beyond the CEREC ceramic we mill here.
The crown does not decay. The tooth under it can.
Decay starts at the margin where the crown meets your natural tooth. That margin is why brushing, flossing around the edge and keeping your checkups decide the lifespan far more than the material does.
Grinding is the other variable
Stress-clenching is not rare in a university town, and it is hard on crowns and natural teeth alike. If you wake up with a sore jaw, tell us. A nightguard is cheap insurance on work you have already paid for.
What Actually Happens
From Cracked Tooth to Fitted Crown
The whole sequence, in order, with the honest card at the end.
Exam and imaging
We look at the tooth, check the bite around it and take imaging, because what shows above the gum is rarely the whole story. A crack that runs below the gum line changes the plan entirely, and it is better to find that now.
Shaping the tooth
The tooth is numbed and reduced so the crown has room to sit without making the tooth taller than its neighbours. If there is decay or an old filling underneath, it comes out first and the foundation gets rebuilt.
Digital scan
A digital scanner records the shaped tooth and the teeth it bites against. No tray of impression material, and no waiting to find out the impression pulled and has to be retaken.
Same-day CEREC, or a lab crown
Two routes. A same-day CEREC crown is designed from the scan and milled in ceramic here at the office. A lab-made crown means a temporary now and the finished crown at a second visit. Which one your tooth gets is decided at the visit, on the evidence, and we tell you before we begin.
Fit, bite check, adjust
The crown is seated, then we check how it meets the opposing teeth and adjust until it feels like nothing. Say something if it feels tall. A crown that sits high is uncomfortable and is worth two minutes of adjustment, not two weeks of putting up with it.
When a crown is not the answer
A small chip on an otherwise sound tooth is usually fixed with bonding, and a crown would be overkill. At the other end, a tooth that has split below the bone or lost too much structure cannot be saved by capping it, and the honest recommendation is removal plus a bridge or an implant. We will tell you that plainly rather than crown a tooth that will not hold.
Why This Office
Six Reasons Bloomington Patients Choose Bloom Dental for Crowns
The mill is in the building
CEREC ceramic crowns are designed and milled here on the east side, near College Mall. When a case qualifies, that saves a second appointment and a second drive back across town or up SR 37.
Friday mornings exist here
Bloomington is the one Bloom Dental office open for clinical appointments on Friday, 8 AM to 1 PM, with phones until 5. For a week built around lectures, labs or shifts at Cook Medical, that window is usually the easiest to fill.
Where the practice started
Dr. Brandt Finney opened Bloom Dental in Bloomington in 2019. It is still owned and led by dentists rather than a corporate operator, so the person deciding what your tooth needs is the person treating it.
Nothing gets referred out
If the tooth turns out to need root canal treatment before the crown, or removal and an implant instead, our own specialists handle it. You are not sent across town to start again with a stranger.
A second opinion built in
Our doctors review cases together across all seven locations every week. A tooth with a complication in it gets looked at by more than one dentist before a plan is settled.
A route if you are uninsured
Graduate and student plans are often thin on major restorative work. We take most major carriers, and there is a Bloom Dental membership program if you have no dental coverage at all.
Your Dentists
Who Fits Your Crown in Bloomington
Crowns here are planned and fitted by the same dentists you see for everything else, not by a rotating visitor.
Dr. Mark Carter
DDS · Bloomington
Handles restorative work at the E. Buick Cadillac Blvd office, from a single cracked molar to rebuilding a bite that grinding has worn down.
He will tell you when a filling or bonding is the better answer, which is not the most profitable thing a dentist can say. Read his full bio.
Dr. Whitney Smith
DDS · Bloomington
Works with patients through crown and bridge treatment at the Bloomington office, with a gentle, unhurried chairside manner our reviews mention often.
She is part of the weekly cross-location case review that gives complicated teeth more than one set of eyes. Read her full bio.
Visit Us
Finding the Bloomington Office
We are on E. Buick Cadillac Blvd on the east side of Bloomington, near College Mall and a short run off SR 37, serving Monroe County and the towns around it, including Ellettsville, Nashville and Bedford.
Address
2909 E. Buick Cadillac Blvd, Bloomington, IN 47401
Phone and email
812-339-3427 · bloomington@bloomdentist.com
Hours
Monday–Thursday 8 AM–5 PM · Friday 8 AM–1 PM clinical, phones until 5 PM · Weekends closed
Bloomington location page · Crowns and bridges · All services
Patient Reviews
What Bloomington Patients Say
Reviews from our E. Buick Cadillac Blvd office, pulled straight from Google.
Insurance, Membership and What a Crown Will Cost
Most dental plans treat a crown as major restorative work, which usually means they pay a share rather than all of it, and many apply an annual maximum. Bloom Dental accepts most major carriers, including Delta Dental, Blue Cross, Aetna, Cigna, UnitedHealthcare, MetLife, Guardian, TeamCare, DentaQuest and Medicare. We verify your specific benefit before treatment starts and give you the figure in writing once we have looked at the tooth, so nothing on the bill is a surprise.
Common Questions
Crown Questions from Bloomington and Monroe County Patients
I cracked a tooth and I leave Bloomington at the end of the semester. Can this be finished before I go?
Usually, and it is worth calling the day it happens rather than waiting to see whether it settles down. Tell the front desk your last day in town when you book. If your tooth is a same day CEREC candidate, the crown is designed, milled and fitted in one visit at our E. Buick Cadillac Blvd office. If it needs a lab made crown, we can often shape the tooth and place the temporary before you leave, then fit the finished crown when you are back. Bloomington is also the one Bloom Dental office with Friday clinical hours, 8 AM to 1 PM, which helps when the rest of your week is class.
Can I get a same day crown at the Bloomington office?
We offer same day CEREC crowns here, and the ceramic is milled in the office rather than sent out. Whether your particular tooth is a same day candidate is decided at the visit, because it depends on how much tooth structure is left, where the tooth sits in your bite and what the imaging shows. We tell you which route your tooth needs before we start, not partway through.
How much does a dental crown cost in Bloomington, IN?
It depends on the tooth, the material and whether anything has to happen first, such as root canal treatment or rebuilding what is left of the tooth, so we do not quote a number before we look. We examine the tooth, take imaging, verify your insurance benefit and then give you the figure in writing. If you have no dental coverage at all, ask about the Bloom Dental membership program.
Will my dental insurance cover a crown?
Most dental plans treat a crown as a major restorative service, which usually means they pay a share rather than all of it, and many apply an annual maximum. Bloom Dental accepts most major carriers, including Delta Dental, Blue Cross, Aetna, Cigna, UnitedHealthcare, MetLife, Guardian, TeamCare, DentaQuest and Medicare. If your plan comes through Indiana University, IU Health Bloomington Hospital, Cook Medical or Catalent, bring the card to the first visit and we will verify your specific benefit before treatment starts.
Do I always need a crown after a root canal?
Not always, but back teeth usually do. A tooth that has had root canal treatment has less structure left and takes the full force of chewing, so a crown holds it together and keeps it from splitting later. Front teeth are sometimes fine without one. The dentist who treats the tooth will tell you which applies in your case rather than applying a blanket rule.
Will the crown look like my other teeth?
For a tooth that shows when you smile, we use tooth colored ceramic and match it to the teeth beside it. For back teeth there is a trade off between how a material looks and how it stands up to years of chewing force, and the dentist walks you through that before anything is made. Raise any concern about shade at the scan appointment, not after the crown is bonded.
How long will a crown last?
The crown itself does not decay, but the natural tooth underneath it still can, usually right at the margin where the crown meets the tooth. That is what decides how long the work lasts. Brushing, flossing around the edge and keeping regular checkups matter more than the material does. If you grind your teeth, and plenty of people do when the semester gets loud, say so, because a nightguard protects the crown you just paid for.
For plain-language background on what crowns are and what they are used for, the American Dental Association publishes an overview at MouthHealthy.
Book a Dental Crown Appointment in Bloomington, IN
Bring us the cracked tooth, the old filling that keeps chipping, or the molar that has never felt right since the root canal. You will leave knowing what the tooth needs, which route it takes and what it costs.
Bloom Dental · 2909 E. Buick Cadillac Blvd, Bloomington, IN 47401 · Monday–Thursday 8 AM–5 PM, Friday 8 AM–1 PM