A crown is a a cover that gets put over your tooth. It looks just like a tooth and fits all the way down to the gumline all the way around the tooth. Crowns are made of gold or porcelain (porcelain ones look the same as your tooth) and so are very strong. They protect your tooth from further breakage by totally covering the tooth and bracing it all together.
It usually takes 2 appointments to have a crown fitted. Basically what has to happen to fit a crown is the tooth gets shaved back a little - about 1mm gets shaved off the top of the tooth and all the way around (to make room for the crown). An impression (or mould) gets taken of the tooth after its been shaved back. This is what gets sent off to the laboratory where the crown is made. A temporary crown is put on the tooth to cover it over (this is made out of plastic and you have to be careful with it as it can break or come off if you bite hard or sticky things on it). It usually takes a week or so for the crown to be made in the laboratory. At your next appointment the temporary crown is removed (they usually pop off very easily) and the permanent crown is cemented. A crown may take a couple of days to settle in but after that you won't even know its there - it should just feel like one of your own teeth.
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