Popularly known as a cap, a dental crown is an imitation or replica of a tooth, placed over a decayed tooth, to protect it from further damage. The reasons for the placement of a dental crown or cap are many. For instance, the tooth is severely damaged or broken. Or when a filling does not suffice to hold the tooth firmly. Discolored teeth can also be covered with a dental crown, or a dental bridge or implant. Be it any reason, a dental crown only accentuates the appearance of one ‘s set of teeth while also working on bettering the oral habits. Just like any other thing nowadays, dental crowns can be customized or are kept readymade or prefabricated. Prefabricated dental crowns are made of plastic or stainless steel, and are most often used as temporary caps until the permanent ones come along. Dental crowns are made up of various kinds of materials, namely, metal, porcelain-fused-to-metal (PFM) or all-ceramic. Metals are furthermore divided into gold, alloys like palladium or a base-metal alloy like nickel or chromium. The all-metal or PFM is a much better choice than all-ceramic as they are stronger. The PFM and all-ceramic crowns look just like your teeth, a doppelganger of your teeth you may say. Depending on their material, the maintenance, the food habits and the wear and tear of the crown is the duration of the shelf life of a dental crown. A dental crown usually lasts for a time period of seven years. In many cases, the dental crowns may even last for a period of 40 years with proper care and high quality of the dental crowns.