Crown or Not
I can not tell you how often patients tell me that they don’t want crowns (caps) on their front teeth because you can spot them from across the room. In response to this my assistant (who has since retired) would give a broad smile and ask what the patient thought about her teeth. The response was genuine and predictable... “You have a beautiful smile.” My assistant would then confess that her beautiful teeth were actually beautiful crowns which I had made for her years earlier.
Today we have even more beautiful and life-like materials for crown fabrication. We have feltzpathic porcelain, pressed ceramics, porcelain fused to zirconia, and a variety of tooth colored substances which can cover a metal substructure. The selection is based upon functional demands and doctor preference. No matter which material or technique is employed there is no reason that the crowns can not be natural looking and virtually undetectable.
Crowns are indicated when the tooth requires additional support because a large amount of tooth structure has been lost to decay or fracture Crowns fit over the miniaturized tooth (core). The crown makes the tooth more resistant to further breakage.
When there is enough healthy tooth structure a veneer can achieve the same results as a crown. Veneers are just eggshell thicknesses of tooth colored material which are bonded onto the tooth. Veneers either require minimal tooth preparation or no preparation at all.
Made by a master laboratory technician you can not tell the difference between a veneer and a crown. when placed on teeth that are next to each other. In addition to providing strength both crowns and veneers allow the dentist more control over tooth color and contours. These prosthetics make smile makeovers possible.
